E340 
.C6 C14 



■ ': y'SBfflfflHSfi' •:.'.' 


m^ 





LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



II I m, 



DDDDSD7a57A 



. \.*"^* o^ ..., % """ A^ 



^vV-^ 






o 



o . - *= 










I6b9. 





i^ 



HKNRY CLAY 



THE GREAT COMPROMISER 



A BRIEF ESTLMATE OF HIS PLACE IN AMERICAN 

HISTORY 



BY 



HOWARD W; CALDWELL, A.M., Ph.B. 

Author of "Hij^her Education in Nebraska," "Atnerican History, 1815-1861. ' 'Method 
of Teaching History," "American History Studies," etc. 



WITH ANECDOTES, CHARACTERISTICS AND 
CHRONOLOGY 



CHICAGO 
The University Association 

Association Building 
L . 






31644 



Copyright 1899. 
By The Tniversity Association 









m& 



%9 




IF we would know a man we must study his hereditary 
characteristics and his environment. It is of special 
moment that the latter should be known during the early 
years when the mind and the disposition as well, are 
plastic and in a formative condition. Race qualities are 
more permanent and important than those variations in 
them which come from the family. To know that a 
man belongs to the English race, rather than to the 
Spanish, for example, is vastly more important than to 
know that he belongs to the Adams family, instead of to 
the Lee. 

This fact aids us in our study of Clay. We know lit- 
tle of his remote, and scarcely more of his immediate an- 
cestry. However, we do know that he belonged to the 
English race, and that his ancestry were English, even if 
the attempt to connect them with royal blood has little 
or no foundation. He and his family belong to the great 
"common people." He needs, no more than Lincoln 
does, the adventitious aid of "blood" to give him a great 
place in American history. 

His father was Rev. John Clay, a Baptist clergyman; 
his mother a Miss Hudson, before marriage. Both were 
Virginians by birth, and both of English ancestry. 



6 HENRY CLAY. 

Clay's father died when Henry was only four years old, 
leaving him the seventh and youngest living child of 
a family of eight. Tradition rather than history tells 
us that Rev. John Clay was an earnest, able man with 
good power as a public speaker. He left a small 
poor farm to his widow and seven children. With the help 
of her children Mrs. Clay was able to make a living for 
herself and them. Yet the fact that we hear of Henry 
Clay, as a barefoot boy, plowing, and carrying the grain 
to the grist-mill on horse-back, proves that labor and 
poverty were both present, and at work fitting "The 
i\Iill-boy of the Slashes" for his future career. We know 
almost nothing of Henry Clay till he was fourteen years 
of age. But we may presume he spent his time much as 
other farmer boys did and do, going to school when he 
could, and aiding in the farm work more and more as 
the years passed. Perhaps there are a million American 
bovs to-day whose lives are not essentially different from 
his, except as the inventions of the last century have pro- 
duced changes. 

While, as a boy, and later as a man, he was in the 
midst of slavery, he never outgrew the fact that to him 
labor was honorable, for it was an every day fact of his 
early life. Also, as we shall see, he never forgot his 
love of rural occupations. 

Henry Clay was born April 12, 1777, near Richmond, 
\'irginia. It should be noticed that Independence had 
been declared only a year before. His earliest impress- 
ions, therefore, as a little six year old boy when Peace 
came, were received in the midst of war. How tenacious 



HENRY CLAY. 7 

these first impressions are, we all know. Once at least 
he may hav-e seen the British soldiers, as they, in 1781, 
made their raid through \'irginia. His great rival, Web- 
ster, was five years his junior, but even he was born dur- 
ing the contest for Independence. Thus these two great 
nationalists came into being in a Revolutionary era, and 




Birthplace of Henry Clay. 

may have imbibed some of their love for the Union from 
the atmosphere into which they were born. 

Clay's formal education was limited to perhaps three 
years, under Peter Deacon, an Englishman, who was the 
teacher of the district of the "Slashes" where the Clays 
lived. The main characteristic of Peter which has come 
down to us is connected with his excessive drinking. 
Tradition says he was a good teacher; Clay says however 
that he learned to read, to write, and to cipher as "far as 
Practice," in an indifferent manner. Like, perhaps. 



8 HEXRV CLAY. 

most boys who have reached any eminence in later years, 
Henry was an inveterate reader as far back in his career 
as we can ^o. In his mature manhood this does not 
seem to have been a characteristic; then he gained his 
knowledge largely from contact with people, and by a 
sort of intuitive absorption. 

Clay left his mother's farm at fourteen to enter a small 
retail store as clerk. Of his work there we know noth- 
ing; but we may presume that the experience gained pre- 
pared him to some extent for his next step, by bringing 
him more into contact with people, and by familiarizing 
him with the ways of the city. His mother had in 1792 
married Captain Henry Watkins. Through his influence 
Henry obtained a place as a supernumerary assistant in 
the office of the clerk of the High Court of Chancery of 
Virginia. 

We have now reached the first turning point in the 
career of Henry Clay. In this ofiice he had to copy legal 
documents, and to do such general writing as he might 
be called upon to do. System and order had to be cul- 
tivated. A good penmanship had to be formed. But 
even more important still, he was here brought into con- 
tact more or less intimately with many of the best men 
in the state. He would hear their conversation, and to 
one, with his eager acquisitive mind, this meant the stor- 
ing therein of a \-ast mass of information. WIk'U he en- 
tered the office he appeared to his fellow clerks, green 
and awkward. One of them has left us an account of 
this first impression which will be found in the appendix 
to this volume. Soon however, the tide turned, and he 



HKNR\' CI.AV. 9 

became the most popular one of their number. 

Only a short time elapsed before he was noticed by 
Chancellor Wythe, one of the noblest and ablest of \'ir- 
o^inia's lawyers, who made Henr)' his private amanuen- 
sis. How much of his time was given to this work, and 
what proportion of it to his duties, as clerk, we do not 
know. There is, however, at least one remnant of this 
work extant. Among the manuscripts in the collections 
of the Supreme Court at Washington, there is a legal 
work by Chancellor Wythe, copied by Clay while acting 
as amanuensis for the great \^irginia lawyer. In it are 
Latin and Greeks quotations, and as Clay knew neither 
language we can understand the pains he took to imi- 
tate the forms which he copied. But the mere fact that 
he became at fifteen or sixteen the trusted friend of Chan- 
cellor Wythe was almost an education in itself. Mr. 
WVthe was able, honest and laborious; he was a friend of 
all the Virginia statesmen, of the time. He was. an 
opponent of slavery and one who like Washington acted 
in accordance with his profession. Washington freed 
his slaves by his will; but Wythe did not wait for death, 
but gave them freedom and aid while yet he could ad- 
minister it. 

Here no doubt young Clay saw, and perhaps met 
Washington, Jefferson and ]\Iarshall as the former was 
an intimate friend, and the two latter had been law stu- 
dents in Wythe's office. We know from his own recol- 
lections that he heard Patrick Henry and went away en- 
tranced. These two men had enougli in common, in the 
fact that their feelings and emotions governed them to a 



lO 



HEXRV CLAY. 



great extent, that it is not strange that the boy was car- 
ried away by the impetuous oratory of the man Patrick 
Henry, Thus, during these years, from the age of fif- 
teen till he reached his twentieth year Clay was in a 
practical school of the very best kind. Few young men 
were so favorably situated as he, though it has been the 




Patrick Henry Addressing the Virginia Assembly. 

fashion of historians to speak as if he had never had anv 
advantages. He lacked only in the systematic training 
which school and college may give. Here even we are 
uncertain how great the lack was, for we know that he 
read widely under the advice of I\Ir. Wythe, and from the 
list of books which have come down to us as among 
those read, we know that much sound literature was cov- 
ered. That there was a lack in his mental processes in 
later years we know, for he was alwavs more or less 



HENRY CLAY. 1 1 

superficial, ready to jump at conclusions, and moved by 
momentary impulses. But college men of the highest 
culture are not free from these faults, hence we cannot 
be sure that a college training would have cured these 
defects. He left this work in 1796, going into the law 
office of Ex-Governor Francis Brooke, who was at 
this time Attorney-General of the state. For something 
like a year he devoted his whole time, as far as we know, 
to the stud}- of law. Again he was favorably situated, 
for Mr. Brooke was not only an able lawyer, but a help- 
ful adviser. These two men remained life-long friends, 
and their private correspondence in later years gives us 
many an insight into the views of Clay to which we 
should not otherwise have access. 

At last Clay was ready to begin his public life, and at 
twenty he was admitted to the bar. The standard per- 
haps was not high; yet we need not conceive it too low, 
for Clay had been in fact studying law, not one year, but 
five, for much of his work with Chancellor Wythe and 
in the Clerk's office was fitting him for his legal exam- 
inations. Clay had, while in Richmond, been one of 
the most active young men in founding and in sustain- 
ing a debating club. Tradition again says that Clay's 
speeches, even here, made him a marked man, and se- 
cured him friends on all sides. 

This then in outline is about all that we know of Clay 
until we find him in Lexington, Kentucky, in the fall of 
1797, ready to begin the practice of law. It is a meagre 
record, but it may be paralleled in its brevity by that of 
manv of America's foremost men. In this countrv caste 



12 HKXRY CLAY. 

and class have not been marked enough to hold men 
down. The nation has in part at least been able to prof- 
it bv findin^>- and usinj^ its talent and genius even when 
they have sprung, as in the cases of Lincoln, Garrison, 
Roger Sherman, Franklin, and scores of others, as well 
as Clay, from the humblest walks of life. We have seen 
Clay on the farm, barefooted; in the little store; in the 
clerk's office as a copyist; as the amanuensis of Chancel- 
lor Wythe; and finally as a student of law. About all 
we know in detail, has been given; but the spirit of it all 
should be noted. All the records and traditions point to 
the one conclusion, that at this period of his life at least, 
he was studious, moral and respected by all. Was he 
as engaging in manners, as captivating in conversation, 
as loved by his friends as in later years? Was he also as 
assertive, as fond of command and leadership? We can- 
not sav. Even tradition gives us little to build on. 
However, in embryo, we can see even from our meagre 
record something of the Clay of later years. 

November, 1797, found Cla\- settled at Lexington, 
Kentucky. From this time to his death in 1S52, it re- 
mained his home, and its people his strongest friends 
and supporters. Lexington was, perhaps, the center of 
education and culture in the state. It prided itself on its 
able men, its schools, its colleges. It was in the midst 
of the famous "blue grass" region, and was not sur- 
passed by au)- part of the state in the fertility of its soil. 
The bar of Lexington included such men as George 
Nicholas, John Breckinridge, James Brown, and William 
Murrav, men of note and standing in the state, and some 



HKNKV CLAY. 13 

of them in the nation, even. Cla)- pnrsiied his law 
studies for a few months after reachinc^ Kentucky; 
then he was admitted to practice in its courts in 
competition with such men as those mentioned above. 
That within two years he could establish himself and 
gain a • paying practice, proves the capacity- of the 
man. In 1799 at the age of twcnt\-two, he mar- 
ried Lucretia Hart, the daughter of one of the wealthy 
farmers or ])lanters of that region. His wife was born in 
Hagerstown, Maryland, and was four )ears his junior. 
They had eleven children, five son^ and six daughters. 
Of the latter onh- two lived to orow to womanhood. 
One of these, Anna, was his favored child, and was said 
to be much like her father. When he learned while he 
was at Washington of her sudden death, it is said that he 
fainted away, and was nuich prostrated for many days. 
It was onlv bv the grreatest exertion of will that he 
shook off the depression and resumed his place in the 
Senate. This was in 1835, during the time of his great 
struggle with Jackson, when he is said to have remarked, 
"My country and my state need my services, so why 
should I bow down to my private griefs?" Three of his 
sons were lawyers. One of them was also a graduate of 
West Point. The latter, Henry, Jr., was killed during 
the Mexican War. The last son died in Kentucky in 
1879. 

We need not dwell long on Clay's career as a lawyer. 
Within a few months after he began his practice it 
rivaled that of many of the older men at the bar. A 
ver}- few years found him with a sufficient income to 



14 HENRY CLAY. 

justif}- him in purchasing Ashland, an estate of some- 
thing over five hundred acres, situated just on the out- 
skirts of Lexington. How mucli, if any part, of the 
means to make this purchase came from his wife, I have 
no evidence. There is little recorded in regard to the 
number of cases that came to him, or of their jxaying 
qualities. We find the statement made that in 1806, 
when he went to Washington, as senator, for the first 
time, his clients gave him $3,000 to look after certain 
cases then pending in the Supreme Court. His first 
cases were in the criminal court, and it is said that he 
never had a man convicted whom he defended. In one 
case only was he prosecutor during his earh* )ears, and 
in this case the man, a negro, was hung. 

Clay's sympathetic and emotional nature, not only 
made him prefer the defence, but also gave him the qual- 
ities that fitted him for success on that side. His power 
over a jury was early manifested; and no doubt he some- 
times freed men whose deeds would have justly merited 
death. One case shows us that the judges of the time 
were not always "up" on law. The prisoner had already 
had one trial, and although the evidence seemed over- 
whelming, }et Clay had so played on the feelings of the 
jury that it had divided and failed to bring in a verdict. 

In the second trial, Clay made no defence, introduced 
no witnesses; however when he came to make his plea, 
he insisted that the prisoner could not be tried again, as 
it would put him twice in jeopardy of life or limb, which 
was against the constitution. His opponents objected to 
the argument. The judge at first ruled it out as an im- 



> 



a; 
o 



n 
"Z 




i6 HEXRV CLAY. 

proper plea. Clay then threw down his brief, gathered 
ujD his papers, left the room, remarking that he would 
not plead at all, if his client was to be deprived of his 
rights. In a short time as Clay had expected, a messen- 
ger came from the judge announcing that he might con- 
tinue his plea, including this point in his argument. He 
returned and so worked on the jury that they brought in 
a verdict of "not guilty." Here we see a trait of Clay 
that under some form or other manifested itself in his 
entire career. His aggressive manner, his real or appar- 
ent belief in his positions, his rather domineering man- 
ner, yet with a rare eloquence, and a masterful person- 
alit)', so worked on others that they submitted unques- 
tioningly to his leadership, or became his bitter oppon- 
ents. 

Clay's success as a lawyer, however, was not confined 
entirely to criminal cases. He became noted for his 
skill in land law, and especially in the somewhat com- 
plicated cases that arose in connection with the conflict- 
ing titles due to early grants by Virginia. Some of the 
famous cases with which he was connected had to do with 
national politics. Twice he was the attorney for Aaron 
Burr when the latter was accused of treasonable conduct 
in connection with his western expedition. At the time of 
his second appearance, December 1806, he had just been 
chosen United States Senator, and seems to have felt 
some hesitancy in regard to undertaking the defence. It 
is also possible that his faith in Burr Vshich at first seemed 
complete, was at this time a little shaken. At last before 
appearing in court he asked from Burr a statement of his 



HENRY CLAY. 17 

plans in writing. lUirr gave him a written denial of any 
wrong intention, claiming, in fact, that the government 
w-as fnlly aware of his intentions, and approved them. 
At the very moment this was given a messenger was ap- 
proaching with Jefferson's proclamation for his arrest. 
Clay never forgave this act, and meeting Bnrr, a few 
years later, in New York, he refused to take his hand, or 
to have any further intimate acquaintance with him. 
Clay was also a few months later one of Blennerhassetts' 
attorneys, in his preliminary trial in Kentucky for aid- 
ing Burr in his plot. 

It is perhaps true that Clay never became one of the 
great lawyers of his time. This conclusion would al- 
most necessarily follow from his personal qualities, as 
well as from his career. He studied cases and won each 
one upon its own merits. His life work was politics 
rather than law. Statecraft and statesmanship- took his 
time, and strength. Little remained for law proper. 
Yet he had the ability to win cases, and could no doubt 
have made a great lawyer. He was quick, versatile, elo- 
quent. Perhaps he was never over logical, and from 
this lack might have failed in the very highest practice. 
He was not the rival of Webster, Hopkinson, or many 
others whose names might be chosen in this field. Yet 
he succeeded in winning cases and made money when he 
did give his attention to his law. Once or twice in his 
career his finances became so involved, that he left poli- 
tics to recuperate his financial standing, and pay off his 
debts. 

We find Clay's name only rarely associated with the 



i8 HENRY CLAY. 

great law cases in the Supreme Court. Some of his 
great rivals appear in a large share of the celebrated con- 
stitutional cases of the time. Webster's name is con- 
stant. Wirt's is common. Clay's appears only occas- 
ionaly. But does this mean that we should pronounce 
against him? Certainly not, for his field was no less im- 
portant. He was a powerful, if not a dominant, force 
for forty years in determining what laws should be 
enacted. No talent however great can compass all fields. 
Clay had his place and his work. How well he filled the 
one and performed the other we shall try to find out as 
we progress in our study. 

Although it was not until 1803 that Clay was elected 
to office, he had before that time taken his stand on po- 
litical questions. As early as 1798 he had urged strongly 
that in revising the Kentucky constitiition provision 
should be made for gradual emancipation. At that time he 
was still poor and as yet under the spirit of Chancellor 
Wythe. In his later years he referred to his course at this 
time with approval; but it is to be noticed that after he him- 
self became a large slave owner, his service in the anti- 
slavery cause was in profession rather than in action. 
Yet it may be admitted that Clay was always ready for 
emancipation if he could only have seen a way to dis- 
pose of the negroes. To free them without colonization 
ever seemed to him a dangerous undertaking. 

His attitude on this question was not liked in Ken- 
tucky in 1798; but the radical stand he took the same 
year against the alien acts, and especially against the 
sedition act saved his popularity. Thus early we find 



HENRY CLAY. 19 

Clay joining himself to the Jeffersonian Republicans. 
He ever insisted that he remained a loyal follower of the 
Republican school, and claimed in later years that it was 
the Jackson Democrats who formed the new part}-, who 
abandoned their traditions, and not he. 

In general in those early days society was rude both 
in manners and in dress. The hunter stage was only 
passing away, so it was the bold, fearless, confident man, 
who impressed himself on the average voter. That Lex- 
ington was of a higher social type we may grant; yet 
that the county of Fayette contained many men of that 
earlier stamp an anecdote of Clay's first campaign shows. 
At a large political meeting he was asked if he could shoot. 
On answering in the affirmative, he was given a gun, a 
mark was set up and he was requested to try his aim. 
He did so and by luck hit the very center. The cry 
was raised, a chance shot! Clay however was equal to 
the emergency and said he would shoot again when some 
one beat his first shot. The shot, his readiness and tact 
turned the tide and he was elected by a good majority. 

Amos Kendall who lived in Kentucky some years 
later, and was for a time tutor of Claj's children, has 
left on record the following testimony of his impression 
of Kentucky at this date. "I have I think learned the 
way to be popular in Kentucky, but do not as yet put it 
in practice. Drink whiskey, and talk loud with the full- 
est confidence, and you will hardly fail of being called a 
clever fellow." Clay was of a higher .stamp than this, 
but still he loved a fine horse and a good race; he learned 
to love cards and card-playing ver}^ greatly at this period 



20 HENRY CLAY. 

of his life. He was not adverse to a duel. He had the 
qualities which would make him popular with the Ken- 
tucky people of 1800; but he also had those that would 
make him loved by the men who lived there in 1850 as 

well. 

Clay was re-elected to each succeeding legislature till 
1809, when he finally entered the national legislature; 
in one house or the other of which he was found for the 
greater part of the rest of his life. In 1806 he served in 
the state legislature, and from Dec. 29, 1806, till March 
4, 1807, in the United States senate. It is interesting to 
note that he was not yet thirty when his term expired, 
hence he served the entire time contrary to the terms of 
the Federal constitution. 

There is not a great deal in his Kentucky legislative 
career that is of sufficient general importance for us to 
dwell upon. He took an active part in all its proceed- 
ings, and early became one of the recognized leaders of 
the Republican party. The newspapers of the day made 
such meagre reports of the legislative proceedings that 
it is difficult to find out what was done.* 

*In preparing this article I had access,— due to the kindness of 
Harvard University— to incomplete tiles of The Kentucky Gazette and 
General Advertiser, The Kentucky Gazette, The Independent Gazet- 
teer andtlie AV/tJ/Vfr published at Lexington; and also to the Pal- 
ladium, The Guardian 0/ Freedo/n, The Western //'cvA/and 'The Ar- 
gus of Western Atnerica \)\\h\\s\\eA at Frankfort. One might tran- 
scribe every word that appeared in them all from 1798 to 181 1 con- 
cerning Henry Clay and yet not have very many pages of print. It is 
interesting to note that in none of the papers does he advertise as a 
lawyer. In none as far as I could find was a speech of his given. In 
only two connections is there an extended notice of any event in which 
he took part; one has to do with his duel with Humphrey Marshall, 
and the other with his debate with Felix Grundy concerning the re- 
peal of the charter of the Insurance Company of Lexington. 



HKNRV CLAY. 2i 

From the accounts accessible Clay seems to have tak- 
en no prominent part in the leg^islatnre of 1803; but in 
1804 he was pitted against Felix Grundy who was urging 
the repeal of the charter of the Kentucky Insurance Com- 
pany. The Guardian of Freedo))i characterizes Grundy 
as a mere demagogue, without knowledge or learning 
and unscruplons, but keen and adroit. The writer 
speaks of Clay in these words: ''The company in the 
interim received in his legislative capacity, a powerful 
support from Henry Clay, Esq., a youthful patriot, unit- 
ing in his character most accomplislied elocution, with 
an understanding comprehensive and acute; and a heart 
as mild and honest as ever glowed in tlie human bo.som." 

The Palladiu))i gives perhaps a fairer version of the 
debate. It sa}s: ''Mr. Grundy led the debate in favor of 
repeal; and Mr. Clay was at the head of the opposition. 
We are happy to inform our readers that the speeches of 
both have been taken down in shorthand and will prob- 
ably be published as we are convinced that in whatever 
form they appear they cannot fail to instruct and delight. 
Tlie house was much crowded during the argument; a 
number of ladies were present."* It may be noted that 
whatever the merits of the case may liave been, that 
Grnndv was successful in the legislature, and the law 
was repealed by a large vote, but as the Governor in- 

*In a letter from Mrs. Susan M. Clay of Lexington, Kentucky, 
dated Sept. 27, 1808, 1 quote these words: "I have the Chiy letters and 
papers, but I am quite sure that I have none of the speeches made in 
this debate, and doubt if any of them exist unless they have been pre- 
served in the family of Mr. Grundy." I have been unable to get any 
trace of either speech, and presume that the editor never carried his 
plan into execution." 



22 HENRY CLAY. 

terposed his veto, victory practically rested with Clay. 

Clay was active in 1805 in legislative measnres as may 
be seen from the fact that The Palladium notes on Nov. 
21 and again on the 22, the 23, and the 27, that Clay has 
been placed on committees to prepare and bring in bills. 

The introduction of the following resolution, Nov. 5, 
1805 would seem to indicate that Clay was aiming at 
securing more system in the management of the finances 
of the state: "Resolved, that a committee of finance be ap- 
pointed to consist of seven members, to whom shall be 
referred all matters in relation to the revenue, and who 
may from time to time suggest any new subjects of tax- 
ation, or defects in the revenue laws for the consideration 
of the hou.se, and that the said committee shall possess 
the power necessary to accomplish the foregoing objects. " 
Clay was appointed chairman of the committee, but we 
have no record in regard to what was accomplished. 

We have now reached the moment when Clay first 
enters national politics. We wish we had other records 
than this meagre one taken from The Palladium of Dec. 
II, 1806, giving the proceedings of the legislature of 
Nov. 19. "The resignation" of General Adair as a sena- 
tor in the Congress of the United States "was received; 
when Mr. Henry Clay was elected in his room, to serve 
till the 4th of March next." Was there a contest? Was 
no thought given to the fact that he was not yet thirty? 
Why was he chosen? Such questions as these come to 
us, but the answer can only be a speculative one. ' 'The 
dead past has buried its dead." 

At the same session a charge was made that Clay had 



HENRY CI. AY. 23 

been bribed, but a committee appointed to in\e.stio^ate 
completely exonerated him. Clay's political conrage 
was proved in more than one waN- in the Kentucky leg- 
islature. At one time a motion was made to prohibit 
the reading of any elementary law book of England, or 
the citation of any English precedent in any court in the 
state. One can hardly believe that prejudice could carry 
a legislature to such an extreme as this. It would have 
cut Kentuckv off from its past, and deprived it of the use 
of the great principles of the common law. Yet it was 
found that about four fifths of the members were for it, 
and Clay had to use to the utmost his reason and elo- 
quence to defeat the measure. For fear that even he 
could not prevent its passage he moved to amend it so as 
to make the prohibition extend only to decisions which 
had been made since 1776. 

In the last legislature in which he sat a contested elec- 
tion case was referred to his committee. The report which 
he then prepared became a precedent and has been fol- 
lowed in similar cases in Kentucky ever since. There 
were three candidates for the legislature from a certain 
district. The one who had the greatest number of votes 
proved to be disqualified as he at that time held another 
office. It was claimed that the candidate having the 
next highest number of votes was then entitled to a seat. 
Clay denied this asserting that there was no election. 
His logic was so irresistable that his report was adopted 
and has never been contravened. 

The last point in his career in the state legislature 
which we need mention is in connection with his duel 



24 III'.XRV CLAV. 

with Humphrey Marshall. It arose in a debate over a 
resolution which Clay had introduced that all members 
should clothe themselves in homespun garments. It 
was just after the attack on the Chesapeake when the 
patriotic spirit was high. Clay was moved by his desire 
to free America from all dependence on England and 
Europe, and in a small degree, perhaps, by his later pro- 
tective ideas. Marshall as a Federalist taunted him. 
The debate ran high, and led to a challenge from Clay. 
Three rounds were fought, and both were slightly wound- 
ed. The correspondence and terms are peculiarh- ex- 
pressive of the age. 

Before the close of this period of Clay's life, he had 
taken strong grounds in favor of internal improvements,^ 
and had begun in a tentative way to outline his .so-called 
"American System." However it was not until after 
the experience of the War of 1S12 that he became en- 
tirely clear and certain in regard to his own beliefs, and 
of the policy that ought to be pursued by the nation. 
The War of 1812 was vastly important in giving to the 
people of the United States a true view of themselves, as 
well as a place in the world's estimation. Clay was a 
leader among the men in favor of the war; vet it mav be 
said that it caused him, also, to develop with great rapid- 
ity,and left him perhaps the truly national statesman that 
he remained to the day of his death. 

Before entering the House in November, iSri, Clay 
had served two short terms to fill vacancies in the Senate. 
About four months in 1807, when he had proved his 
energy and fearlessness by making a motion the fourth 



HENRY CLAY. 



25 



day after taking his scat, and by two or three short 
speeches in advocacy of the policy of internal improve- 
ments at a later date. At that time he desired to have 
certain lands set apart to pay for the construction of a 




The Old House of Representatives in the time of Henry Clay. 
Now Statuary Hall. 

canal on the Kentucky side, around the Falls of the 
Ohio, near Louisville. 

From 1809 to 181 1 he took a prominent part in Sena- 
torial life, and made himself a national reputation as an 
orator and an energetic party leader. In the first of his 
Congressional speeches, which have been preserved for 
us, he argued in favor of giving encouragement to domes- 



26 HENRY CLAY. 

tic inaiuifactiires, not to the extent of making us a nation 
manufacturing for exportation, but to such an extent as 
to supply our own needs. "The nation," he says, "which 
imports its clothing from abroad is but little less depend- 
ent than if it imported its bread." 

Clay's next speech was in advocacy of the claim that 
West Florida had been a part of the Louisiana purchase. 
He argued well in support of this position, and showed 
care in investigation and keen ability in stating his 
points. This speech proved his intense Americanism 
and his willingness to defy Spain and England too, if 
necessary. He was for taking immediate possession of 
that which he believed to be our own. 

But his first really great speech was made in opposi- 
tion to the recharter of the National Bank. Clay's later 
years are so closely interwoven with the Bank, as its 
greatest champion, that it is seldom noticed that he be- 
gan his national career as its opponent, on grounds of both 
unconstitutionality and in expediency. He found no clause 
in the constitution from which there might be implied 
the right to charter such a bank. In many wa}s he 
was already breaking from the strict-construction views 
of the early Republicans, but in this case we find him 
arguing- along- the line of the \'in'"inia and Kentuckv 
Resolutions of 1798. Mr. Richie of the l^irginia Exam- 
iner claims that Cla}' never satisfactorily answered his 
own arguments as set forth at this time. 

In I 816, Clay admitted that his views had undergone 
a change, but it is interesting to note that he rather 
shifted his grounds than attempted to answer his ar- 



IIKNKV CLAY. 27 

ofuments of iSi i. He frankly confessed that he had 
modified his views, yet he attempted to make the change 
seem as little as possible. In 181 6 he emphasized the fact 
that the Kentnckv leo-islatnre in 181 1 had instructed 
him to oppose the recharter, and stated that that was 
one of the principal reasons for his action. However it 
will be noticed that in his speech of 181 1 he pnt very 
little stress on this factor. He also claimed the old bank 
had not been strictly true to its obligations, which was 
a cause for his opposition; again he had made little of 
this in earlier years. His biographers have, in general, 
asserted that this is the only change on any great meas- 
ure that he made during his long political career. He 
himself asserts this on more than one occasion. It may 
be true that in belief he made no other such marked 
change; but in actions he was not alwavs consistent as 
we shall see in our later discussions. 

We are now^ ready to turn to Cla>'\s career in the 
House of Representatives. He was a member con- 
tinually from 181 1 to 1825 with two short exceptions; 
one during the time he was in Europe as Peace Com- 
missioner, 1814-1815; and the other 1821-22 when he 
resigned that he might recuperate his private finances 
which were in a deplorable condition. 

Clay took his seat in the House Nov. 3, and was elect- 
ed speaker the same day by the following vote; Clay 75, 
Bibb 38, and six scattering. He is the only man in 
American History wdio began his career in the House as 
its speaker. The choice proved to be an exceedingly wise 
one, as he was quick, alert, ready and firm, as well as in 



28 



HENRY CLAY. 



general, just and fair. On liis election he addressed the 
House in these words: — 

"In coming to the station which you have done me 
the honor to assign me — an honor for which you will be 
pleased to accept m\- thanks — I obey rather your com- 
mands than my own inclinations. I am sensible of the 

imperfections which I 
bring along with me, 
and a consciousness of 
these would deter me 
from attempting a dis- 
charge of the duties of 
the chair, did I not rely 
confidently upon your 
support. Should the 
rare and delicate occa- 
sion present itself when 
your speaker should be 
called upon to check or 
control the wanderings 
or intemperances in debate, your justice will, I hope, as- 
cribe to his interposition the motives only of public good 
and a regard to the dignity of the house. And in all in- 
stances be assured, gentlemen, that I shall with infinite 
pleasure, aiford every facility in my power to the des- 
patch of public bu.siness, in the most agreeable manner." 
Clay was speaker during practically all the time he 
was a member of the House. Usually he was chosen 
with little or no opposition. Yet it cannot be said it 
was because he was colorless. On the contrary he spoke 




Desk used in the House of Representa- 
tives when Clav was Speaker. 



HENRY CLAY. 29 

often, and on nearly all important questions that canic 
before Congress. His speeches are also marked b\- in- 
cisive vigor and frequently with a cutting sarcasm that 
could not have been without its sting. Neither was he 
alwavs by any means on the winning side. In his at- 
tacks upon Jackson's course in the Seminole War, as 
well as in his measures concerning the South American 
Republics he was in a minority. However when the 
time came for the election to the speakership, if Clay 
wished the place, there was no chance for any one 
ao-ainst him. Certainly the half dozen times he was 
chosen speaker must lead us to believe there was hon- 
esty of purpose, and abilit\- in action, or such a career 
could not have been possible. It is impossible in a brief 
account like this, to follow Clay into the details of his 
life during these years -in many respects his most inter- 
estino- vears. It mav be said that the course of Ameri- 
* can History was changed to some degree by him. Per- 
haps, indeed, no other man unless it were Jackson had so 
much influence on its destiny as he. Clay was not as 
solid as Webster, as devoted to a cause as Calhoun, 
as determined as Jackson, yet he surpassed either of 
them in political leadershi]\ He was never greatly out 
of s>inpathy with his times. He absorbed public feel- 
incr, and led rather than created it; but his influence 
itself was a factor in making it. In these earlier years 
of our history leadership meant more than it does to-day. 
But even then, it must ever be kept in mind, the his- 
torv of the time cannot be told in the life of any one 
great man, nor even in the lives of all the noted states- 



30 HENRY CLAY. 

men; even then the people through public opinion were 
the ruling power in the long run. 

As the great leader in the west, in 1812, Clay, joined 
by Calhoun, Lowndes, Porter and others decided that 
the time for war had come. England must cease to im- 
press American seamen, to blockade American ports, 
and to intercept and practically destroy American com- 
merce. France must learn to respect our rights. It 
mattered little with which one the war should take 
place. Circumstances, rather than choice, decided that 
England should be the enemy. Clay remarked once that 
it was only our inability which deterred us from declar- 
ing war against them both. 

But Clay himself can best tell us his view at this 
time. His speeches made in connection with the war of 
181 2 are among the most eloquent he ever made. In 
urging an increase of the navy he said: 

"The groundless imputation, that those who are 
friendly to a navy, were espousing a principal inimical 
to freedom, should not terrify him." "The principle of 

a navy was no longer open to controversy. It 

was decided when I\Ir. Jefferson came into power. ..." 
"It is the appropriate, the natural (if the term may be 
applied) connection of foreign commerce. The sliei> 
herd and his faithful dog, are not more necessary to 
guard the flocks, that browse and gambol on the neigh- 
boring mountains. . . We have only to make the proper 
use of the bounties spread before us, to render us prosper- 
ous and powerful. Such a navy as he had contended for, 
will form a new bond of connection between the states, 



HENRY CLAY. 3' 

concentrating their hopes, their interests, their affections. " 
As the war progressed, the fact that the Federalists 
were antagonists became more apparent. New England 
especially was opposed to the war, and to Madison's ad- 
ministration. Clay, as the foremost orator of the war 
party, in a great speech Jan. 8, 1813, exposed com- 
pletely the course of the opposition. A few passages 
will give us an insight into his oratory, and also show 
us how sarcastic he could be on occasion: 

"Perhaps, in the course of the remarks, which I may 
feel called upon to make, gentlemen may apprehend, 
that they assume too harsh an aspect; but I have only 
now to say that I shall speak of parties, measures, and 
things, as they strike against my moral sense, protesting 
against the imputation of any intention, on my part, to 
wound the feelings of a.\\y ge7tllemen.^'' 

"The course of that opposition (the Federalists) . . . 
was singular and I believe, unexampled in the history of 
any country. The arrangement with Mr. Erskine is 
concluded. It is first applauded and then censured by 
the opposition. . . . Restriction after restriction has 
been tried; negotiation has been resorted to until further 
negotiation would have been disgraceful. Whilst these 
peaceful experiments are undergoing a trial, what is the 
conduct of the opposition? They are the champions of 
war — the proud — the spirited — the sole repository of the 
nation's honor — the men of exclusive vigor and energy. 
. . Is the administration for negotiation? The opposi- 
tion is tired, sick, disgusted with negotiation. . . . 
When, however, foreign nations, perhaps emboldened by 



32 HENRY CLAY. 

the very opposition here made refused to listen to the 
amicable appeals, . . . when, in fact, war with one of 
them has become identified with our independence and 
our sovereignty, . . . behold the opposition veering 
round and becoming the friends of psace and commerce. 
They tell you of the calamities of war, its tragical 
events. . . . They tell you that honor is an illusioni 
Now, we see them exhibiting the terrific forms of the 
roaring king of the forests. Now, the meekness and hu- 
mility of the lamb. They are for war and no restrict- 
ions, when the administration is for peace. They are 
for peace and restrictions, when the administration is for 
war. You find them, sir, tacking with every gale, dis- 
playing the colors of every party, and of all nations, 
steady only in one unalterable purpose — to steer, if pos- 
sible, into the haven of power." 

"The gentleman from Massachusetts, in imitation of 
some "of his predecessors of 1799, has entertained us 
with a picture of cabinet plots, presidential plots, and all 
sorts of plots, which have been engendered by the dis- 
eased state of the gentleman's imagination. I wish. 
Sir, another plot, of a much more serious and alarming 
character — a plot that aims at the dismemberment of our 
union — had only the same imaginary existence." It 
was in this same speech that Clay made tlie plea for the 
American sailor that has been quoted so many times; 
yet, as it is not accessible to man)- an American youth, 
let it be repeated once more: 

"If Great Britain desires a mark, by which she can 
know her own subjects, let her give them an ear mark. 



HENRY CLAY. 33 

The colors that float from the masthead should be the 
credentials of our seamen. There is no safety to us, and 
the gentlemen have shown it, but in the rule, that all 
who sail under the flag (not being enemies) are protected 
by the flag. It 
is impossible 
that this coun- 
try should ever 
abandon the gal- 
lant tars, who 
have won for us 
such gallant tro- 
phies. Let me 
suppose that the 
genius of Col- 
umbus should 
visit one of them 
in the oppress- 
or's prison, and 
attempt to rec- 
oncile him to 
his forlorn and 
wretched condi- 
tion. She would 
say to him in 

the language of the gentlemen on the other side, 'Great 
Britain intends you no harm; she did not mean to impress 
you, but one of her own subjects; having taken you by 
mistake, I will remonstrate, and try to prevail upon her, 
by peaceable means, to release you; but I cannot, my son, 




Oliver H. Perrv. ibe Naval Hero oi ilic 
Wiirof 1812. 



34 HENRY CLAY. 

fight for you. ' If he did not consider this mere mockery, 
the poor tar would address her judgment, and say,'you owe 
me, my country protection; I owe you, in return, obedi- 
ence. I am no British subject, I am a native of old 
IMassachusetts, where lived my aged father, my wife, my 
children. I have faithfully discharged my duty. Will 
you refuse to do yours?' Appealing to her passions, he 
would continue: 'I lost this eye in fighting under Trux- 
ton, with the Insurgente; I got this scar before Tripoli; 
I broke this leg on board the Constitution^ when the 
Guerriere sXxwQ^.' If she remained still unmoved, he 
would break out, in the accents of mingled distress and 
despair, 

" 'Hard, hard is my fate! Once I freedom enjoyed, 

Was as happy as happy could be! 

Oh! How hard is my fate, how galling these chains!' 

"I will not imagine the dreadful catastrophe to which 
he would be driven, by the abandonment of him to his 
oppressor. It will not be, it cannot be that this country 
will refuse him protection." 

As Clay was one of the most earnest, if not the most 
earnest, advocate of war in 1812, so during its entire 
course he remained its most zealous and aggressive sup- 
porter. He was for vigorous measures. He wished to 
press the attack on land and sea, and could he have had 
a united and enthusiastic people behind him, ready to 
act in accordance with his plans, the result might have 
been more glorious than it was. 

Yet while he was anxious for war, and persisted in its 
prosecution, he was ready for peace at the first moment 



IIKXRV CLAY. 



35 



he believed that it conld be obtained on honorable terms. 
Cla\- was, through his whole life, an opponent of war 
for its own sake. He was fearfnl of standing armies. 
The military hero 
was dreaded by 
Clay, if he entered 
civil life merely 
on his military' rec- 
ord. 

Thus in 1814, 
when it was 
thought that hon- 
orable peace might 
be obtained, Clay 
was ready to go to 
Europe as an en- 
voy. He was joined 
by J< Q- Adams, 
Gallatin, Russell 
and Bayard. He 
and Adams were 
the irascible, radi- 
cal members, ready to strike fire, like flints at every 
moment. Adams seems to have felt that the navigation 
of the Mississippi river might be yielded to England, if 
only provision could be made to secure the New Found- 
land fisheries to the people of New England. Clay re- 
versed the picture. Thus they quarreled, and within 
the commission the discord was scarcely less than be- 
tween them and the English negotiators. However 




James A. Bavard. 
Born July 28, 1767. Died Aug. 6, 1815. 



36 HENRY CLAY. 

they had one supreme good quality — they were out- 
wardly united toward Great Britain. Gallatin was the 
peace-maker. Without him it is probable that no result 
could have been reached. Clay was daring in his de- 
mands, and showed little of the diplomatic spirit that 
had characterized diplomacy in the past. His western 
energy, straight-forwardness, and aggressiveness came 
into good play. His admirers claim that he alone of the 
commissioners fully realized how thoroughly ready Eng- 
land was for peace, and hence he alone understood how 
great the demands were which might be made without 
endangering peace. Of course his detractors hold that 
it was mere good luck that prevented his course from 
ruining the whole negotiations. 

The English commissioners yielded point by point of 
their first demands. Gallatin's middle policy won with 
the Americans. Finally the men set their names to a 
treaty which contained no word, in regard to a single 
question, for which the war was begun. Yet it may be 
said the American commissioners made a good treaty of 
peace; one honorable to them and to their country. 

Clay remained in Europe for a few months more, and 
helped to form a commercial treaty with England. He 
then returned to America, only to be sent as before by 
his people to Congress; and again immediately to be chos- 
en speaker of the House. 

Clay saw at that time what it took some Americans 
many years to appreciate; viz: that we had as the result 
of the war gained respect abroad, and at home a self- 
consciousness tlist »jeaDt much for the future. The 



HENRY CLAY. 37 

national feeling had developed with marvelous rapidity 
under the stress of war, the naval victories, and the won- 
derful achievement by Jackson, on January 8th, at New 
Orleans. Clay held that the war had in national develop- 
ment alone been worth far more than it cost. The ef- 
fect in uniting the country, and in developing the 
national idea was similar to what we see going on around 
us now, as the result of the recent war for the liberation 
of Cuba. 

Clay had been imbued with national tendencies be- 
fore the war. After it these tendencies became the 
basis for rules of action under all circumstances. All 
legislation should have as its goal the realization of 
national life. 

Under this incentive he became the champion of the 
National bank. As we have seen, in i8ii,hewas its 
deadly enemy — now he becomes its firm friend. 

As early as 1807 he urged that the United States gov- 
ernment should aid in internal improvements. In the 
years following 181 5, he is a constant and zealous advo- 
cate of the most wide-reaching system of improvements 
under national auspices. 

He had in his earlier years joined with Washington, 
Jefferson, and Madison in favoring the use of home made 
articles; in the years from 181 5 till 1844 he is a finn 
believer in the efhcacy of his so-called "American sys- 
tem"as the panacea for all the ills to which the national 
life was heir, even if it be true that in 1833 he was the 
author, and the leading advocate of the famous compro- 
mise tariff. Clay yielded then to save the Union. 



38 HEXRV CLAY. 

These financial measures are the best known, and 
are perhaps the ones on which his fame and name 
rest. But to my mind he rose to his greatest height 
in orator}' and in unselfish devotion to the cause of 
liberty, in his advocacy of the cause of the South 
American people in their struggle for freedom from 
Spanish oppression. To be sure there was much in his 
argument that was not wholly logical. He was led to 
say, in the moment of highest exaltation, when carried 
away by the fervor of his orator}-, that ignorance on the 
part of the people was no bar to self-government. But 
in this earnest advocacy of the rights of a people, in his 
intense devotion to the cause of democracy, he earned 
the praise of all who long to see the time come when 
the brotherhood of man will be recognized as a fact as 
well as a theory. 

He may not fully have recognized the truth that dem- 
ocracy as a fact is only practicable when there is a rela- 
tively high state of development. But he was standing 
for the right of a people to a democratic form of gov- 
ernment and of society, at the very earliest practicable 
moment. He said with much truth that "it is the doctrine 
of thrones, that man is too ignorant to govern himself." 
He might well have added that aristocrats and plutocrats 
hold to the same doctrine. The time is not e\'en yet 
passed when we have ceased to need the entrancing voice 
of a Clay, leading us to recognize our duty towards man 
as he struggles upward toward the goal of self-govern- 
ment. 

In these same years we hear his glowing words as in 



HENRY CLAY 



39 



1S24 he speaks on this resolution introduced by Web- 
ster: "Resolved, that provision ought to be made by 
laws, for defraying the expenses incident to the appoint- 
ment of an agent or commissioner to Greece, whenever 
the president shall deem it expedient to make such ap- 
pointment." On this resolution he said: ''Go home, if 
you can; go home if 
you dare to your con- 
stituents, and tell them 
you voted it down;meet, 
if you can, the appeal- 
ing countenances of 
those who sent you 
here, and tell them 
that you shrank from 
the declaration of your 
own sentiments; that 
vou cannot tell how, 
but that some unknown 

dread, some indescribable apprehension, some indefina- 
ble danger, drove you from your purpose; that the spec- 
tre of scimiters, and crowns, and crescents gleamed 
before you and alarmed you; and that you suppressed 
all the noble feelings prompted by religion, by liberty, 
by national independence, and by humanity: I cannot 
bring myself to believe that such will be the feeling of a 
majority of the committee. " 

Clay began as early as 181 7 to advocate the cause of 
the South American revolutionists. By 181 8 he believed 
they were entitled to recognition as independent repub- 




Daniel Webster. 



40 HENRY CLAY. 

lies. He persisted in his efforts, and in the course of a 
few years, he found that Congress had veered round and 
was as enthusiastically with him. as it had been antag- 
onistic to his ideas a few years earlier. His speeches of 
these years contain many brilliant passages. The fol- 
lowing will illustrate their general tenor: 

"But, sir, it seems that a division of the Republican 

party is about to be made by the proposition 

What has been the great principle of the party to which 
the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Wilson] refers, from 
the first existence of the government to the present da)? 
An attachment to liberty, a devotion to the great cause 
of humanity, of freedom, of self-government, and of 

equal rights What is the great principle that 

has distinguished parties in all ages, and under all gov- 
ernments — democrats and federalists, v.hig and tories, 
plebeians and patricians? The one distrustful of human 
nature, appreciates less the influence of reason and 
of good dispositions and appeals more to physical force; 
the other party, confiding in human nature, relies much 
on moral power, and applies to force as an auxiliary only 
to the operations of reason.'' 

"Nay, I have seen a project in the newspapers, and I 
should not be surprised, after what we have already seen, 
at its being carried into effect, for sending a minister to 
the Porte. Yes, sir, from Constantinople, or from the 
Brazils; from Turk or Christian; from black or white; 
from the Bey of Algiers or the Bey of Tunis; from the 
devil himself, if he wore a crown we should receive an 
ambassador But, let the minister come from a 



HENRY CLAY. 4t 

poor republic, like that of La Plata, and we turn our 
back on liini/' 

"An honorable gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Sheffey] 
had said the people of South America were incapable 
from the ignorance and superstition which prevail among 
them, of achieving independence or enjoying liberty. 
And to what cause is that ignorance and superstition 
owing? Was it not to the vices of their government? to 
the tyranny and oppres.sion, hierarchical and political, 
under which they groaned? If Spain succeeded in riv- 
eting their chains upon them would not that ignorance 
and superstition be perpetuated? .... For his part he 
wished their independence. It was the final step toward 
improving their condition." 

"Wherever in America her [vSpain's] sway extends, 
everything seems to pine and wither beneath its bane- 
ful influence Our revolution was main- 
ly directed against the mete theory of tyranny. We 
had suffered comparatively but little; we had, in some 
respects, been kindly treated; but our intrepid and intel- 
ligent fathers saw, in the usurpation of the power to levy 
an inconsiderable tax, the long train of oppressive acts 
that were to follow. They rose; they breasted the 
storm; they achieved our freedom. Spanish America for 
centuries has been doomed to the practical effects of an 
odious tyranny. If we were justified, they were more 
than justified." 

In all these speeches we get only illustrations of 
the one sentiment which he vividly expressed in a speech 
of 1810: ''I have no commiseration for princes. My 



42 



HENRY CLAV 



sympathies are reserved for the great mass of mankind." 

Richard Rush in a letter to Clay of June 23, 1S27, 

states very clearly that he believes Clay deserved the 

credit for the exis- 
tence of the South 
American Republics. 
He says: 

"I have just read 
Lord Grey's speech, 
and cannot resist the 
desire I feel to send 
it to you. You will 
recognize in it senti- 
ments I have ex- 
pressed as regards 
Mr. Canning and the 
new South American 
States. If Earl Grey 
had been better in- 
formed, he would 
have said that it was 
yo2i who did most to 
call them into being;-. 
I say this in no idle spirit of praise, having always, abroad 
and at home, expressed the opinion, that, next to their own 
exertions, the South-Americans owe to you more than to 
any other man in either hemisphere, their independence, 
you having led the way to our acknowledgment of it. 
Without our acknowledgment, England would not have 
taken the step to this day. This is my belief. I give 




Geortje Canning. 
Born 1770. Dit'd 1827. 



HENRY CLAY. 43 

Mr. Canning no credit for the part he acted. It was 
forced upon him by our lead, which he never had the 
magnanimity to avow, l)ut strove to claim all the merit 
for England, or rather for himself. " 

Monroe offered Clay a position in his cabinet; he re- 
fused to accept partly perhaps because he was piqued 
that Adams, not he, had been made Secretary of State; 
and parth' because he felt that his place was in the leg- 
islature rather than in the cabinet. Whatever the 
reason Clay was exceedingly critical during the eight 
years of Monroe's administration. Scarcely had Mon- 
roe's second term begun when the intrigues for the suc- 
cession in 1825 invaded both Congress and the cabinet. 

Adams, Calhoun and Crawford in the cabinet were 
jealous of each other, and were looking with longing 
eyes to the election of 1824. Clay in Congress, could 
not entirely free himself from a desire so to guide its 
action as to make him strong at the expense of those 
more closely associated with the administration. Of 
course by 1822 Jackson had begun to rise up to threaten 
each and all of the men who had a civil life only to pit 
against him as a military hero. 

Clay's attitude toward Jackson cannot be said to have 
been wholly determined by his fear of him as a rival for 
the presidency. In the matter of the vSeminole War, and 
the invasion of Florida by Jackson, at that time, Clay 
had been very radical in his utterances. Unless we de- 
cide that Clay was carried away by his oratory, we must 
conclude that he greatly feared that the country was 
in danger sooner or later of being destroyed by some 



44 HENRY CLAY, 

military chieftain. Clay had expressed himself in two 
great speeches on the subject of Jackson's course in 
connection with the Seminole War. After one has read 
the following extracts, it would seem that it ought to be 
clear why in the election of 1825, it was almost impossi- 
ble for Clay and Jackson to work in harmony. 

"General Jackson says that when he received that let- 
ter he no longer hesitated. No, sir, he did no longer 
hesitate. He received it on the 23rd, he was in Pensa- 
cola on the 24th, and immediately after set himself be- 
fore the fortress of San Carlos . . . which he shortly re- 
duced. . . . Wonderful energy! Ample promptitude! 
alas, that it had not been an energy and a promptitude 
within the pale of the constitution, and according to the 
orders of the chief magistrate." 

"I will not trespass much longer upon the time of the 
committee: but I trust I shall be indulged with some 
few reflections upon the danger of permitting the conduct 
on which it has been my painful duty to animadvert, to 
pass without a solemn expression of the disapprobation 
of this house. Recall to your recollection the free na- 
tions which have gone before us. Where are they now? 

'Cone K^limmcrins? through the drtam of thinti^s that were, 
A school boy's tale, the wonder of the hour.' 

"And how have they lost their liberties? If we could 
. . . . ask a Grecian, if he did not fear some daring mil- 
itary chieftain, covered with glory, some Philip or Alex- 
ander, would one day overthrow the liberties of his coun- 
try, the confident and indignant Grecian would exclaim, 



HENRY CLAY. 45 

No! no! we have nothing- to fear from our heroes; our 
liberties are eternal." .... 

"I hope not to be misunderstood. I am far from inti- 
matini,^ that Gen. Jackson cherishes any designs inimical 
to the liberties of his country. I believe his intentions 

to be pure and patriotic But precedents if bad 

are fraught with the most dangerous consequences 

Ao-ainst the alarming doctrine of unlimited discretion in 
our military chieftains when applied even to prisoners of 

war, 1 must enter my protest We are 

fiehtimr a grreat moral battle, for the benefit, not only of 
our own country, but of all mankind." .... "To you, 
]\Ir. Chairman, belongs the high privilege of transmit- 
ting unimpaired, to posterity, the fair character and lib- 
erty of our country." .... "Beware how you give a 
fatal sanction, in this infant period of our republic, 
scarcelv yet two score years old to military insubordina- 
tion. Remember that Greece had her Alexander, Rome 
her Csesar, England her Cromwell, France her Bona- 
parte, and that if we escape the rock on which they 
split, we must avoid their errors." 

"I hope gentlemen will deliberately survey the awful 
isthnnis on which we stand. The>- may bear down all 
opposition; they may even vote the General the public 
thanks; they may carry him triumphantly through this 
house. But, if they do, in my humble judgment, it will 
be a triumph of the ]irinciple of insubordination, a tri- 
umph of the military over the civil power, a triumph 
over the powers of this house, a triumph over the con- 
stitution of the land. And I pray most devoutly to 



46 HENRY CLAY. 

Heaven, that it may not prove, in its nltiniate effects 
and consequences, a triumph over the liberties of the 
people." 

The campaign of 1824 had begun as early as 1822. 
The Federalists had by this time disappeared as a 
national party, and did not offer to put forward a presi- 
dential candidate. The struggle was entirely within the 
Republican party, and was in the main, a personal con- 
test. In 1822 Clay's correspondence shows that he was 
planning to have the legislature of Ohio nominate him 
for the presidency. He preferred to come before the peo- 
ple in this manner rather than to be presented b\- his 
own state. For some time he seemed to fear Crawford 
most, but after the latter was stricken with apoplexy, he 
felt that his real and dangerous rival was Adams. It 
was not till late in the campaign that he came to realize 
that the man whom he had attempted to have censured a 
few years earlier in Congress, for his course in the Semin- 
ole War, had been taken up by the people, and was being 
pressed in earnest for the presidency. In one of Clay's 
letters to a friend in Ohio he stated that the nomination 
of Jackson by the legislature of Tennessee was only to 
satisfy local pride, and that Jackson could find no sup- 
port outside of his own state. But by the beginning of 
1824 ^^^ ^''^^^ to admit that Pennsylvania was entirely 
"mad" with Jacksonism. However even to the last mo- 
ment almost he refused to believe that the American peo- 
ple would choose for the highest civil office in their gift, 
the man who was only a successful general; for Clay 
claimed that Jackson had done practically nothing in 



HENRY CLAY. 



47 



political life, was not a student of public affairs; and also 
that he was hot-headed, and as Clay believed despotic 
and entirely unsafe. 

However successful Clay may have been in judging 
public opinion, in 
general, he certain- 
ly was utterly mis- 
taken in reijard 
to its attitude to- 
ward Jackson. Clay 
was never quite 
so optimistic after 
his contact with 
Jackson in the 
years 182 5 to 1833, 
as he had been be- 
fore. In his pri- 
vate letters he said 
he would not whol- 
ly despair of the 
future of the Re- 
public. He could 
not but feel that 
there was sufficient honesty and public worth in the 
American people to lead them to turn from the path 
upon which they had entered. Yet he never either 
in public or in private was able to imderstand Jack- 
son nor to guage correctly the motives that were 
prompting the people to support him. That Clay was 
honest is doubtless true. That Jackson was equally so 




William H. Crawford. 
Born Feb. 24, 1772. Died Sept. 15, 1834. 



48 HENRY CLAY. 

would now be denied by few. Yet these men went 
to their graves each believing that the other was dis- 
honest, and that his triumph endangered the perpetuity 
of the Republic for which either would have willinglv 
laid down his life had he felt it necessary for its preser- 
vation. In general Clay was not a man with fierce ha- 
treds as was Jackson; yet, in this particular case, it 
seems that the intensity of his mistrust and dislike was 
not exceeded by Jackson himself. 

When the campaign ended it was found that the elect- 
ors had made no one president. Jackson led with 99 
votes, while Adams came next with 84. Crawford had 
41 to Clay's 37, so Clay was not one of the three highest, 
hence could not be voted for by the House. When it 
became its duty to choose a president. Clay as speaker of 
the House, as the most influential and powerful man in 
it, had it in his power to determine which one of these 
three men should be made president. During the cam- 
paign it was clear that his friends at least, if not he him- 
self, leaned toward Crawford. At the last moment al- 
most, in the campaign, Gallatin had withdrawn as the 
candidate for vice-president on the Crawford ticket. His 
friends were in general for Clay for the place. There 
are indications in Clay's letters, that had this plan been 
broached soon enough, it might have been considered. 
At least Clay was very careful in his replies not to an- 
tagonize the friends of Crawford who were fashioning 
this plan. 

When the election was over, however, and the vote of 
Clay had to be cast for some one, his choice was soon 



HKNRY CLAY. 49 

made. He felt, at least as soon as he had seen Craw- 
ford, that his sickness had disqnalified him for the place. 
In his letters he freqnently makes the statement that 
Adams wonld not be his choice at all were he free to 
choose from whom he wonld; yet since it was either 
Jackson or Adams he preferred the latter. Perhaps as a 
conrageons statesman he had to take a side, and to use 
his influence and his friends to win. However as it 
proved, it cost him dear. Before this time Clay's reputa- 
tion had been as spotless as his public character. From 
this time on he had to face the cry of "bargain and cor- 
ruption." Jackson and thousands of the American peo- 
ple believed that Clay had voted for Adams, in return 
for the promise that Adams would make Clay Secretary 
of State. The proof is overwhelming that no such 
agreement was entered into, but the charge was made; 
some attempted proofs were set forth; and he could not 
put it down. He accepted the office, and people would 
believe that it had been bought. The charge has been 
made by Mr. Colton, Clay's biographer, that the corrupt- 
ion was on the other side, and that there was a conspir- 
acy to force Clay to vote for Jackson, or to ruin Clay. 

But the truth is Colton succeeded no better in his 
charge, than did the friends of Jackson in theirs, and to 
my mind a careful, if not an exhaustive, study of all 
that has been said on both sides, leaves the impression 
that the times and the character of the men concerned 
offer the true explanation. As a matter of fact both 
were high-minded, patriotic statesmen. Both were in- 
tense. Both were ambitious. The thought of wrong 



50 HENRY CLAY. 

got a lodgement in two such minds. It was ineradicable. 
The people were not yet self-centered. They believed, 
as we do yet too often, that improper motives always 
guided men in official positions. In a word it was a vast 
mistake and misconception. Neither was capable of un- 
derstanding the other. Each was strong on one side of 
his character and weak on another. But both were 
above selling themselves, or their country, or its inter- 
ests, to gratify personal ambition. Yet it must be said 
that Clay erred. He saw it when too late, and in 1842, 
in a speech to his neighbors he admitted it. His true 
place was in Congress. He had no right to lay himself 
open to the suspicion that his vote had been used to 
further his owm longings. He might have been presi- 
dent had he not become Adams's Secretary of State. 
For this latter place Clay was well fitted, but he lost a 
greater stake, and brought much sorrow on himself by 
not having avoided even the appearance of evil, as well 
as the evil itself. 

The four years that Cla)^ was Secretary of State were 
on the whole years of disappointment to him. To be 
sure he could point to the fact that he had concluded 
more treaties with foreign nations than all his predeces- 
sors together, yet this fact satisfied him little when he 
failed in his greatest plans, and had also to fight the cry 
of "corruption" during the entire time. 

Immediately upon the inauguration of Adams, new 
party ties began to be formed, and it was soon seen that 
the "Era of Good Feeling" was at an end. Adams and 
Clay w^ere able to carry most of their respective friends 



HF.NRV CLAY. 51 

into the support of the new administration; thus the 
"ins" were content. However the "outs" also tended to 
join in criticism of the measures of the new government. 
Gradually as the measures of Adams and Clay unfolded 
themselves, those who had supported Jackson and Craw- 
ford as well as most of Calhoun's friends began to fuse 
into one party. Their battle-cry was "avenge the peo- 
ple," who had been cheated out of their will by the cor- 
rupt union of Adams and Clay. Nearly or quite one- 
third of Clay's private letters during these years contain 
some reference to this charge. He made one or two 
masterly speeches on the question. He wrote some of 
his strongest papers for the press on the subject. Seem- 
ingly he had completely refuted the charge. His friends 
like Webster and Lafayette, congratulated him on the 
overwdielming success of his defence. Yet it all seemed 
to be of no avail. Jackson finally lent his name formal- 
ly to the charge, and cited Buchanan as his witness. 
The latter did not sustain the charge. Again it would 
seem that the victory was won. But no! Clay never 
escaped the effect of his indiscretion,or his mistake which- 
ever we may call it. The lesson is evident, a man must 
not only be pure in fact, but he must also avoid the very 
appearance of corruption. 

For years as we have seen Clay had been the friend of 
the South American Republics. Now as Secretary of 
State seemingly the time had come when he could aid 
them as he had wished to do in the past. Yet fate stood 
in his way. In the senate, if the majority were not ac- 
tivelv hostile, thev were readv at least to thwart his 



52 HENRY CLAY. 

plans by indirection. This was soon made manifest in 
connection with the proposed Panama Congress. A 
meeting of delegates from the various American states 
was to be held on the isthmus to take into consideration 
the interests of this continent. Here was the chance to 
form the "Human Freedom League" that Clay had de- 
sired in order that it might be ready to thwart the plans 
of the "Holy Alliance" of the European nations. Clay 
found however that even Adams was cooler blooded than 
he, and felt the necessity of caution. In two elaborate 
messages Adams made it clear to Congress that he did 
not intend to send commissioners to the Panama Con- 
gress unless the money was first appropriated. Yet even 
then the Senate delayed confirmation. Adams also 
stated in his messages that the delegates would only have 
power to consult. They would have the right to con- 
clude nothing. 

However Congress quibbled lest we should in some 
way become involved in foreign complications. Again 
Adams narrowed the IMonroe doctrine so that it meant 
only that each American State should resist the attempt 
to plant colonies within its borders by its own means 
and strength. In every way it would seem that he had 
guarded against the interests of the Union becoming in- 
volved with those of the Spanish American states. At 
last the Administration saw victory, in the confirmation 
of its envoys. However the delay proved fatal as the 
Congress had already adjourned when they reached Pan- 
ama. 

Perhaps it was as well that failure came in the way it 



HENRY CLAY. 53 

did since the time was not ripe for the consummation of 
Clay's plans. Rut the disappointment to Clay must 
have been keen, and all the greater, since he realized 
that the opposition was less because of the measure, than 
because the measure was his, or his and Adams's. 

The campaign of 1828 began almost before that of 1824 
was ended. The legislature of Tennessee renominated 
Jackson, and he resigned his seat in the Senate that he 
might be free to be a candidate for president. The 
whole of Adams's administration, therefore, was practi- 
cally one long campaign. Few measures were decided 
on their merits; most were discussed from the standpoint 
of their influence on the next election. Adams was pro- 
posed as his own successor, but Clay was not for that 
reason allowed to escape attack. The campaign was one 
that cannot be looked back upon by an American with 
pleasure. Personalities were the chief stock in trade. 
Adams was maligned. Jackson was attacked in his pri- 
vate life, as well as for his public acts. Clay became in- 
volved in the charges and counter charges. 

Clay replied in a speech at Lexington to the charge of 
corruption in the election of 1825, in so able a manner, 
that letters came to him from all over the Union of a 
tenor similar to one of Webster's in which he said, "Yon 
speak very modestly of recent events, in which you have 
borne so successful a part. I cannot think General Jack- 
son will ever recover from the blow he has received." 
Mr. Letcher refers to the letter of Mr. Buchanan con- 
cerning the charge as if it practically settled the election; 
for he says, "I am greatly gratified with the result, and 



54 HEXRV CLAY. 

must believe it will have a happy effect upon the Presi- 
dential election. It is impossible it should turn out 
otherwise. Virginia, after this, will not— cannot sup- 
port the General." But the result proved that Clay 
could not prevent the election of Jackson; and that Clay's 
friends as well, failed to understand the strength of the 
popular movement for Jackson. The event which hurt 
Clay most of all was that his own beloved state of Ken- 
tucky had given its vote to Jackson. How deeply this 
grieved him may be seen from his letter to his friend 
Adam Beatty: 

'From the information which your letter communi- 
cates. . . . there is reason to apprehend that the vote of 
Kentucky has been given to General Jackson. Without 
that event, there is but too much probability of his elect- 
ion. To this decision of the people of the United States, 
patriotism and religion both unite in enjoining submis- 
sion and resignation. For one, I shall endeavor to per- 
form that duty. As a private citizen, and as a lover of 
liberty, I shall ever deeply deplore it. And the course 
of my own state, .... will mortify and distress me. I 
hope, nevertheless, that I shall find myself able to sus- 
tain with composure the shock of this event, and every 
other trial to which I shall be destined." 

To Mr. Niles he writes, "Aly health and my spirits, 
too, have been better, since the event was known, than 
they were many weeks before. And yet all my opinions 
are unchanged and unchangeable, about the dangers of 
the precedent which we have established. The military 
principle has triumphed, and triumphed in the person of 



HENRY CLAY. §5 

one devoid of all the graces, elegances, and magnanimity, 
of the accomplished men of the profession." These ex- 
tracts show how keenly Clay felt the defeat of Adams in 
this election; or perhaps, better, they show how greatly 
he was distressed at the triumph of Jackson. 

On retirincr from the office of Secretary of State, March 
1829, Clay could not refrain from emphasizing the above 
idea in a speech at a banquet which was given to him 
by his friends. Again in a great speech at Lexington, 
he took occasion to affinn that an error had been made 
in electing a man to the presidency who wished to rule 
on military principles; and whose first act had been to 
fill the important places in the governmental service on 
the principle that to the "victors belong the spoils." He 
closed this speech with a reference to himself which 
shows how constantly the charge of corruption kept 
rankling in his mind. 

"I have doubtless committed many faults and indis- 
cretions, over which you have thrown the broad mantle 
of your charity. But I can say, and in the presence of 
my God and this assembled multitude, I will say, that 
I have honestly and faithfully served my country; that 
I have never wronged it; and that, however unprepared 
I lament that I am to appear in the Divine presence on 
other accounts, I invoke the stern justice of his judg- 
ment on my public conduct, without the smallest appre- 
hension of his displeasure." 

At this time Clay seemed to feel that he had finished 
his public career, and was content to retire to his farm and 
his family. That he was sincere is seen in the fact that 



56 HENRY CLAY. 

he declined to be returned to the House, and rejected the 
suggestion that he should go to the Kentucky legisla- 
ture. Yet scarcely a year passed till we find him mak- 
ing a political pilgrimage through the south; and in 
1 83 1 he entered the senate of the United States, where 
he strove with Webster and Calhoun for leadership in 
that body when it was at the zenith of its fame. For 
eleven years he remained in the senate. During this 
period, he was once a candidate for president; and, later 
in 1840, he sought the nomination from the Whigs in 
vain; for, on the ground of availability, it went to Har- 
rison, a man vastly his inferior in mental ability, and in 
real qualifications for the office. 

However it was during these years that Clay reached 
the height of his power. Yet it seemed that fate was 
ever against him. In one way or another he was pre- 
vented from testing his theories in actual measures. 
When Congress was with him Jackson as president 
blocked his way. I^ater when the House was won he 
was in a minority in the Senate. Finally in 1841, 
House, Senate and President were all seemingh- in har- 
mony w^ith him. He outlined his plans. He went to 
Washington full of hope. At last he could press his 
measures to a test. But this time the frailty of human life 
balked his plans; for, only one month after his inaugu- 
ration Harrison died. Tyler became president, only to 
quarrel with Clay, and to veto many of his pet measures. 
Clay strove for a }'ear, and finally saw two of his plans 
successful, one negative the other positive. The Sub- 
Treasury law was repealed; and a moderately protect- 



HKXRV CLAY. 57 

ive tariff act was placed on the statute book. lint the 
bank act which was to crown the work, as Clay believed, 
was defeated; and his land bill rested among the acts slain 
by Tyler's veto pen. Feeling that his work was done, 
and longing also for rest and home Clay resigned in 
1842. His farewell speech to the Senate was dramatic 
in its form and in its occasion. Althouo;h he had had 
many sharp and bitter contests with senators, now that 
the moment of parting had come, the high place which 
he held in their estimation was seen. It is said that 
few eyes were dry as Clay's farewell words fell from his 
eloquent lips. 

But let us stud)' those years more in detail, to tr}- to 
find out and judge of the merit of the measures that 
Clay struggled so hard to put into the form of laws, or 
to prevent from going on the statute book. 

One of the first questions that demanded Clay's atten- 
tion on his entrance again into the Senate pertained to 
the management of the public land. There was a move- 
ment on foot to withdraw all public lands from market 
for a time. The great debate in 1830 between Webster 
and Hayne hnd originated in a resolution of Senator 
Foote of Connecticut to have a committee appointed to 
consider the advisability of such a measure. The dis- 
cussion opened up the whole question of the States 
Right doctrine, and various propositions were brought 
before Congress. Some would give the lands to the 
states; others would sell them to the states in which they 
lay at a merely nominal sum. The question had become 
in part an issue also between the eastern and western sec- 



58 



HEXRV CLAY. 



tions of the Union. Thus the greatest questions of the 
day were involved in the settlement of the land problem. 
In this condition of affairs the whole subject was referred 
to the committee of Manufacturers of which Clay was 

chairman. It must 
be remembered 
that at this time, 
1832, Clay was a 
candidate for the 
presidency, hence 
It was presumed 
that any report he 
could make would 
injure him in some 
section of the Un- 
ion. We must also 
note that his com- 
mittee was not the 
natural one to 
which to refer such 
a measure. Evi- 
dently we ma}' con- 
cludethat it was sent to his committee for political pur- 
poses. Clay did not hesitate to grapple with the problem; 
he proved his courage at least, whether his report was 
marked by the highest statesmanship or not. The com- 
mittee reported against lowering the price of the land 
which had been fixed at $1.25 per acre by the law of 
1820, and against ceding the land to the states; but it 
favored distributing the proceeds of the sale of the lands 




Robert Y. Hayne. 
Born Nov. 10, 1791. Died Sept. 24, 1841 



HKXRV CLAY. 5g 

among^ the states, after reserving ten per cent of the re- 
ceipts to be distributed among the new states. Clay 
here began his struggle for the distribution of the pro- 
ceeds of the land sales among the states, a struggle 
which he never abandoned till he left the senate in 1842, 
unable to .secure its adoption. Evidenth' there was a 
close relationship in Clay's mind between land-.sale dis- 
tribution and the tariff. The revenues of the government 
during these years were in excess of its needs. A re- 
duction of income must be found somewhere. 

Clay did not claim the constitutional right to tax, to 
collect revenue from the j)eople with one hand in order to 
get an income that the national orovernment miy-ht in 
turn distribute it with the other hand to the states. 
However, he did insist that the income from the land 
sales might be so disposed of, and in that way the rev- 
enue of the government be lessened. The only alterna- 
tive to this policy would be to reduce the duty on im- 
ports. The latter measure was the one desired by the 
free-trader, and by the revenue reformer. Clay held out 
against it and, in 1832, succeeded in securing the pas- 
sage of a tariff law which was strongly protective in its 
effects. The passage of this law was made the occasion 
for South Carolina to pass her resolutions of nullifica- 
tion. All Clay's writings both public and private, as 
well as his speeches, show that he was opposed to the 
doctrine as set forth by South Carolina. In his great 
speech on Xullification he used the following language: 

"In cases where there are two systems of government, 
operating at the same time and place, over the same peo- 



6o HKXRV CLAY. 

pie, the one general, the other local or particular, one 
system or the other must possess the right to decide upon 
the extent of the powers, in cases of collision which are 
claimed by the general government. No third party of 
sufficient impartiality, weight and responsibility, other 
than such a tribunal as a supreme court, has yet been 
devised, or perhaps can be created. The doctrine of one 
side is that the general government though limited in its 
nature, must necessarily possess the power to ascertain 
what authority it has and, by consequence, the extent of 
that authority." 

"The South Carolina doctrine, on the other side, is, 
that that state has the right to determine the limits of 
the powers granted to the general government: and that 
whenever any of its acts transcend those limits, in the 
opinion of the state of South Carohna, she is competent 
to annul them. It is admitted that the South Carolina 
doctrine is liable to abuse; but it is contended, that the 
patriotism of each state is an adequate securit)-, and that 
the nullifying power w'ould only be exercised, in an ex- 
traordinary case where the powers reserved to the states, 
under the constitution, are usurped by the federal gov- 
ernment. And is not the patriotism of all the states, as 
great a safeguard against the assumption of powers, not 
conferred upon the general government, as the patriot- 
ism of one state is against the denial of powers which 
are clearly granted?'' However he loved the Union 
above all things, and he therefore stood ready to com- 
promise that the need to use force might not occur. 
For this reason mainly, I belie\-e it ma)- be said. Clay 



HENRY CLAY. 6i 

introduced the compromise tariff bill of 1833. To be 
sure in his argument he urged that the measure was nec- 
essary to save the protective system from immediate des- 
truction. He also argued that protection would perhaps 
not be needed by 1842 when the principal reduction in 
the rate of duty was to be made. Yet when we liave 
made these concessions, it still remains true that the 
preservation of the Union was the main factor as may be 
seen from his speeches and letters. In one he says: 

"If there be any who want civil war, I am not one of 
them. I wish to see war of no kind; but above all I do 
not desire to see civil war. When a civil war shall be 
lightened up in the bosom of our own happy land, and 
armies are marching, and commanders are winning their 
victories, and fleets are in motion on our coast, tell me, 
if you can . . . its duration. 

"In conclusion, allow me to entreat and implore each 
individual member of this body to bring into the consid- 
eration of this measure, which I have had the honor of 
proposing, the same love of country, which, if I know 
myself, has actuated me, and the same desire of restor- 
ing harmony to the Union which has prompted this 
effort." 

This bill was supported by Calhoun, and thus the nul- 
lifiers joined with Clay and the compromisers to settle 
the question at immediate issue. South Carolina re- 
pealed her resolutions and acts of nullification, while 
Congress passed the so-called "Force Bill" to assert its 
authority. Jackson, as a result of his course, strength- 
ened his position with the north especially, while Clay 



62 HENRY CLAY. 

strengthened his right to the title of the "Great Com- 
promiser. " 

Thus while Clay was ready to compromise on the tar- 
iff for the sake of the Vnion, there was one subject on 
which he never would consent to lower his flag. The 
national bank called forth all the resources of his brain 
and tongue. He forced the issue of its recharter into 
the campaign of 1832, and lost. If Jackson at that time 
had concluded not to push his opposition to the bank 
further, the making the question an issue in the cam- 
paign determined him to secure its destruction. When, 
July 4, 1832, the recharter bill came before Jackson he 
did not hesitate, although it was known that a large sec- 
tion of his own party were enlisted on the side of the 
bank. Jackson's veto message of the loth of July ap- 
pealed to the people to come to his aid in his great strug- 
gle for their rights against the giant bank monopoly. 
The leaders might hesitate to follow him, but the great 
common people did not. The result of the election was 
the overwhelming defeat of Clay and the bank. Jackson 
seized upon this so-called verdict of the people to push 
the bank to its destruction. His own officers must fol- 
low his lead. When ^NIcLane hesitated to remove the 
government deposits from the vaults of the bank, another 
place was found for him, and Duane was made his suc- 
cessor as Secretary of the Treasury. When the latter 
refused to remove the deposits, although Jackson had 
assumed the responsibility for the act, he was promptly 
removed and Taney appointed in his place. Oct. i, 
1833, the bank ceased to receive any more funds of the 



HEXRY CLAY. 



63 



Qnited States, and by INIarch of the following year, it 
ceased to have any of the government revenue in its pos- 
session. 

Clay opposed Jackson in all these measures in the 
most power- 
ful way; but, 
although 
joined by 
Webster and 
Calhoun, as 
well as by 
many former, 
friends of I 
Jackson, it] 
was of no a- 
vail. The 
people were 
with Jackson. 
Perhaps the 
keenest criti- 
cism that can 
be made up- 
on Clay dur- 
ing these 

years is that he was only a negative force. When 
he saw that the people had pronounced against the 
then existing banking system, he had nothing to pro- 
pose in its stead. He struggled for its restoration till 
1842; then, after his failure, due to Tyler's veto, he 
turned to other subjects, recognizing that his pet meas- 




Martin Van Burcn. Eighth President of the U. S. 
Uorn 1782. Died 1862. 



64 HENRY CLAY. 

lire could not again, soon at least, be able to obtain a 
favorable hearing from the American people. 

In Van Buren's administration it was proposed to 
substitute the Independent Treasury for the National 
Bank. Clay opposed the plan, and predicted dire disas- 
ter to the country should it be adopted. In 1840 the 
measure became a law, only, to be repealed the next year 
when the Whigs under Clay's and Harrison's leadership 
came into power. In 1846 when the Democrats again 
triumphed the system was reestablished, and exists to- 
day with few opponents. Clay's predictions remain un- 
fulfilled. It is to be noted in general that during these 
years Clay failed to move with the progress of events. 
He stood for an earlier policy, and opposed nearly all 
plans that marked an innovating spirit. His remedy for 
the ills of the crisis of 1837 was to return to the bank, to 
protection, to the distribution of the income from land 
sales among the states; and as we have seen he urged the 
repeal of the Sub-Treasury plans of managing the gov- 
ernmental revenues. 

Gradually the slavery issue forced itself to the front. 
Clay's location as well as his disposition made him a 
compromiser. He opposed the Abolitionists and insist- 
ed that they were endangering the Union by their course. 
The petitions which came to Congress regarding slavery 
in the District of Columbia seemed to Clay to be dan- 
gerous, and unnecessary. While he did not deny the 
constitutional riy-ht of Congress to legislate on the sub- 
ject, he held that to do so would be violating an implied 
promise to Maryland and \'irginia when they ceded the 



HKNKV CLAY. 65 

District. On the other hand Clay wonld not go with 
the extremists of the south, in denying the Right of Pe- 
tition. He opposed the policy pursued by the extrem- 
ists in both sections, and tried to put a restraining hand 
on each. He denied /;/ toto the right of the nation to in- 
terfere with slavery in the states; and affirmed that the 
slave-master had a right to his property, and that each 
state was free to act as it pleased. 

If the question, lie once said, was concerning the in-' 
troduction of slaves, ''No man in it would oppose their 
admission with more determined resolution and conscien- 
cious repugnance than I should." But he adds: "What 
is best to be done for their happiness and our own, now 
that they are here?" "In the slave states the alternative 
is that the white man must govern the black, or the 
black govern the white." It was this thought that 
seems to have dominated Clay's instinctive love of lib- 
erty. 

Clay was not always consistent in kis arguments on 
this cpiestion. He wished to have the free negroes colo- 
nized in Africa, and supported the colonization society for 
that reason. Yet he in one breath said that they are the 
off-scouring of society, and in the next that they would 
carry religion and civilization back with them to Africa. 
In arguing for this society he said: 

''This society is well aware, I repeat, that they cannot 
touch the subject of slavery." . . . "Of all descrip- 
tions of our population, that of the free colored, taken in 
the aggregate, is the least prolific, because of the checks 
arisincr from vice and waut." . . . "If I could be in- 



66 HENRY CLAY. 

strumental in eradicating this deepest stain upon the 
character of the country, and removing all cause of re- 
proach on account of it, by foreign nations; if I could 
only be instrumental in ridding of this foul blot that 
revered state that gave me birth, or that not less beloved 
state which kindly adopted me as her son; I would not 
exchange the proud satisfaction which I should enjo\', 
for the honor of all the triumphs even decreed to the 
most successful conqueror. " .. . "There is a moral fit- 
ness in the idea of returning to Africa her children, 
whose ancestors ha\e been torn from her by the ruthless 
hand of fraud and violence. Transplanted in a foreign 
land, they will carry back to their native soil the rich 
fruits of religion, civilization, law, and liberty." . . . 
"Of all classes of our population, the most vicious is that 
of the free colored. It is the inevitable result of their 
moral, political, and civil degradation. Contaminated 
themselves, they extend their vices to all around them, 
to the slaves and the whites. If the principle of coloni- 
zation should be confined to them; if a colony can be 
firmly established and successfully continued in Africa 
which should draw off annually an amount ot that por- 
tion of our population equal to its annual increase, much 
good will be done." . . . "Every emigrant to Africa is 
a missionary carrying with him credentials in the holy 
cause of civilization, religion, and free institutions. We 
are reproached with doing mischief by the agitation of 
this question. The society goes into no household to 
disturb its domestic tranquility; it addresses itself to no 
slaves to weaken their obligatious of obedience. It seeks 



HENRY CLAY. 67 

to affect no man's property. It has neither the power 
nor the will to affect the property of any one contrary to 
his consent. The execution of its scheme would aug- 
ment instead of diminish the value of the property left be- 
hind." 

There was no hesitation in 1844 in giving Clay the 
nomination for president. The Whigs had as they be- 
lieved been betrayed by Tyler, so now they would nom- 
inate the great leader of their party, as they ought to 
have done in 1840. No doubt many factors entered into 
the result. Two however seem to have turned the scale 
against Clay. For the last time Jackson entered the 
field, and revived the old cry of ''bargain and corrup- 
tion." This old charge again confronted Clay. Again 
he proved its falsity, but doubtless thousands believed 
Jackson. The other factor was Clay's own. He was 
opposed at heart to the annexation of Texas, and had 
said so in a straight-forward manner. But during the 
campaign to try to save votes or to secure votes in the 
south, he was enticed into writing some six letters, the 
first explaining his views, and the others attempting to 
explain the explanation. Those who were influenced at 
all were in the north. Polk could under no circum- 
stances have been deprived of a vote in the south, for 
both were radically for annexation. In the north, how- 
ever, when it became evident that Clay was attempting 
to hedge, disaster was certain. The campaign in his 
cause flagged, Greely says, from the moment his letters 
appeared. Silence might have given him Michigan and 
New York and the presidency. His letters were factors 



68 



HENRY CLAY 



at least in losing both. For the next few years Clay was 
only an interested spectator of the exciting drama that 
was playing at Washington. He viewed the struggle 
over the institutions of the territories with alarm. The 

Wilmot Proviso, and 
the debate it aroused 
caused him to fear 
again for his beloved 
Union. By 1849 it 
seemed that the hour 
of danger had come. 




Oregon 



organ- 



was 
ized as a territory 
with slaverv exclud- 
ed. Every si'gn point- 
ed to the admission 
of California as a free 
state, but perhaps on- 
ly at the cost of se- 
cession and war. The 
„ south felt that the 
Mexican war had 
been fought largely by its sons, and now for the results 
of the war to strengthen the power of the free states 
seemed to it insufferable. At the best it was willing to 
compromise only by extending the line 36° 30' to the 
Pacific. 

At this juncture Clay was persuaded to return to the 
Senate. He came back longing to reconcile the north 
and the south, To him the slavery issue was not so im- 



John C. Fremont. ■The Pathliuder of the Rockies. 
Born 1813. Died 1890. 



HENRY CLAY. 6g 

portant as to those farther north or farther south. He 
held slaves, but he could see them freed with equanimity; 
so he could not understand those from the extreme south 
who felt that their whole life was absorbed in the contin- 
ued existence of the slave system. He did not feel that so- 
cial, industrial and political institutions were practically 
based on its continuance. In short he could not under- 
stand why they should wish to break the Union, if they 
were prevented from extending the system into at least 
a part of the new territory. But if he could not under- 
stand the south, still less could he realize the point of 
view of the north. Why the northern people should 
press the issue so as to irritate and madden the south he 
could not understand. The question to them was only 
a moral abstraction. They had no slaves. They were 
in no wise responsible for the existence of slavery. Each 
state determined that question for itself. Thus it was 
that Clay was unable to put himself fully in the place of 
either north or south. What was slaver\- an\-way com- 
pared to the Union? In this state of mind, he came, I 
believe, to Washington. A compromise would settle 
the question again as it had before. Clay seemed to be- 
lieve it would settle it forever. He proposed a plan. It 
finally passed Congress and became known as the "Com- 
promise of 1850," the "finality'' compromise. In one 
sense Clay had not mistaken the temper of the people. 
The majority both north and .south were ready to yield 
somethintr for the sake of Union. 

Clay did not live to know that his "finality" measure 
proved to be only a temporary makeshift. He died in 



TO HENRY CLAY. 

1852, at the moment when both the great parties had 
placed on their banners the promise of faithfnlness to his 
great Compromise. We may believe that Clay had no 
conception that in less than ten years from that time a 
million men from north and sonth would confront each 
other with arms in hands, to fight out the great issue 
that he supposed he had settled, perhaps, for all time. 

Of Clay then we may conclude: He was a man of 
wonderful personality and power. His voice and pres- 
ence charmed all who came within their influence. On 
the whole he was not a creative statesman, yet he was 
ready with measures for the day. His mind was that of 
one who stood ready to compromise, and his great work 
in our history perhaps was to postpone the day of settle- 
ment of the slavery question till it could be settled right, 
and yet preserve the Union. This last word was the 
dearest of all to him, and his career, though marked 
with faults and weaknesses, was never untrue to it. As 
he himself said, he could challenge the judgment of God 
on his public acts, and could feel that he would not there 
be found wanting. 



HENRY CLAY. jt 

ANECDOTES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF HENRY CLAY. 

CLAY AT FIFTKEN. 

Roland Thomas, senior clerk in the office i-n which 
Clav became a copyist, at the age of fifteen, has left us 
this description of Clay's appearance the day he began 
his work. 

"His face was not handsome; his manners were not en- 
tirely uncouth, but it was supposed that he was to be the 
butt of ridicule. It was soon seen however that he had 
a keen tongue, and the laughter was turned to admira- 
tion. He was dressed in a new suit of Figginy (\'ir- 
ginia) cloth, cotton and silk mixed, complexion of pep- 
per and salt, with clean linen well starched, and the tail 
of his coat standing out from his legs at an angle of 
forty-five degrees, like that of a dragoon." 

Mr. Thomas adds that Clay was an earnest student at 
night and odd moments; that he never, at this time, went 
out at night for pleasure. 

CLAY AND BURR. 

Burr gave the following written paper to Clay before 
Clay would undertake his defence when he was charged 
with treason, by Col. Daviess, the Ignited States Attor- 
ney, 1806. 

"He [Rurrj had no design to intermeddle with, or dis- 
turb the tranquility of the United States, or its territories, 
nor any part of them. He had neither issued nor 
signed, nor promised a commission, to an}' person, for 
any purpose. He did not own a single musket, nor bay- 
onet, nor any single article of military stores, nor did 



72 HKN'RV CLAY. 

any other person for him, by his anthority or knowledge. 
His views had been explained to several distinguished 
members of the administration, were well understood and 
approved by the government. They were such as every 
man of honor, and every good citizen, mnst approve. He 
considered this declaration proper as well to connteract 
the chimerical tales circulated by the malevolence of his 
enemies, as to satisfy Mr. Cla)-, that he had not become 
tJie counsel of a man in any way unfriendly to the laws, 
the government, or the well being of his country." 

J. O. ADAMS. 

The Aurora of 1808 contains an article from which 
The Reporter of Lexington quotes the following extract. 
It mirrors the feelings of the people of Kentucky, as 
they conceived the New England Federalist of that day. 

"Mr. J. Q. Adams has committed an offence inexpi- 
able against the friends of a union betiueen Gt. B. and 
the eastern states. In order to reign over the people as 
satraps, there is a faction in the eastern states willing to 
subvert the union: Afr. Adams has had the honest)- to 
repel., resist and expose them; and he is removed from 
the senate. He has, in his removal, the consolation of a 
virtuous man, and the applause of his country, while 
those who would betray their country to the flagitous de- 
signs of Gt. B., already meet the national execration." 

WAR OF 1 81 2 IX NEW YORK. 

The New York Evening Post., is quoted in the Na- 
tional Intelligencer., of May 12, 181 2, as using this lan- 
guage in regard to their position on the War. 



iii;nrv ci.av. 73 

"Mr. Cla\- and his western ])rethreii ma\' make light 
of our cities being laid in ashes followed by a flight to 
Kentuck}- and Ohio, but we shall take the liberty to 
think for ourselves, as well as to feel for ourselves, to de- 
liberate for ourselves and to determine for ourselves. We 
tell them plainly that 7ce ivill not go to war; we will not 
abandon our cities; we will not take flight to the west- 
ward. And, now, 1ft tJicni try tJieir poiver over us as 
soon as they pleased 

clay's first bank speech. 

TJic Argus 0/ Western America^ a Kentucky paper, 
quotes this comment from the Whig^ on Clay's great 
speech against the Bank, on Feb. 15, 1811. 

"^Ir. Clay, of Kentucky, chained the attention of the 
Senate, and of the crowded galleries to a speech of about 
an hour and twentv minutes continuance, abounding in 
strong and prespicuous argument, and in stubborn facts, 
pronounced in the most natural and emphatic manner. 
Such a display of forceful oratory I have never witnessed 
in a legislative body, and, if I decline the attempt to re- 
port from mere recollection an accurate sketch of this 
matchless oration; if \\\\ memory was deluded to do hom- 
age to my admiration the merit of the speech will be 
found an ample excuse for my delinquency." 

FEDERALIST ESTIMATE OF CLAY, 1815. 

Tile Jixaminer oi Sept. 13, 1815, contains this esti- 
mate of Clay. From this article one may form a very 
good idea of the amenities of journalism at that time. 

''We are at length recovered from the fascination of 



74 HENRY CLAY. 

the heroic manners of Harry Clay; and we have ceased 
to contemplate with enthnsiastic rapture 'the human face 
divine^'' which adorns the forepart of the head of Albert 
Gallatin. 

"Of Mr. Clay's vehemence in favor of that war which 
was to establish the absolute intactability of neutral com- 
merce. . . little now need be said. His utter disap- 
pointment in these matters, sufficiently proves, that al- 
though he may rank high, in the order of bawling pa- 
triots, he has shown himself utterly destitute of that so- 
ber, practical wisdom, which distinguishes the real states- 
man from the vociferous demagogue. . . To him /uvior 
seemed to consist in being an ambassador; not in being 
consistent and inflexible. . . . 

''But I cannot forbear to ask what mighiiy service this 
gentleman has rendered his country? He was certainly 
never so famous for elegant composition, as Stump Ora- 
tor." [He states that] '•'agreot object of the war has 
been attained in the firm establishment of the natiojial 
character. Is this true? Or is it false? Federalists! 
Democrats! On your consciences is it true or is \t false? 
... It was reserved for Mr. Clay to cap the climax of 
absurdity and falsehood, by saying that the establish- 
ment of the national character was a great object of the 
war. The assertion is not true. There is not an idiot 
in the country who can be persuaded it is true. i\Ir. 
Clay knew it was not true." 

CLAY AND LAFAYETTE. 

In 1824 at the time of LaFayette's visit to the United 



X 
o 

3 



r. 
> 



Tk 



cr. 



00 




76 HENRY CLAY. 

States, Clay delivered the welcoming address in the 
House of Representatives: 

"The vain wish has been sometimes indulged that 
Providence would allow the patriot, after death, to return 
to his own country, and to contemplate the intermediate 
changes which had taken place — to view the forests 
felled, the cities built, the mountains leveled, the canals 
cut, the high-ways constructed, the progress of the arts, 
the advancement of learning, and the increase of popu- 
lation. General, your present visit to the United States 
is a realization of the consoling object of that wish. 
You are in the midst of j^osterity. Everywhere you 
must have been struck with the great changes, physical 
and moral, which have occurred since you left us. 
Even this very city, bearing a venerated name, alike en- 
deared to )ou and to us, has since emerged from the for- 
ests which then covered its site. In one respect you find 
us unaltered, and that is in the sentiment of continued 
devotion to liberty, and of ardent affection and profound 
gratitude to your departed friend, the Father of his coun- 
try; and to you, and to your illustrious associates in 
the field and in the cabinet, for the multiplied blessings 
which surround us, and for the very privilege of address- 
ing you, which I now exercise. This sentiment, now 
fondly cherished by more than ten millions of people, 
will be transmitted, with unabated \'igor, down the tide 
of time, through the countless millions who are destined 
to inhabit this continent, to the latest posterity." 

CLAY TO HIS NEK'HBORS, 1 829. 

The following extract from an address to his constitu- 



& 



HENRY CLAY. 77 

etits, in 1829, when he returned from Washington, after 
retiring- from the position of Secretary of State, shows 
ns, in part, at least, the qualities which gave him such a 
powerful hold on his neighbors, who were ever and al- 
ways his friends. Some one has said that the nearer one 
got to Lexington, Kentucky, the stronger he found the 
hold that Clay had on the people. 

"And now, my friends and fellow-citizens, I cannot 
part from you, on possibly this last occasion of my ever 
publicly addressing you, without reiterating the expres- 
sion of my thanks from a heart o\-erflowing with grati- 
tude. I came among you, now more than thirty years 
ago, an orphan boy, pennyless, a stranger to you all, 
without friends, without the favor of the great. You 
took me up, cherished me, caressed me, protected me, 
honored me. You have constantly poured upon me a 
bold and unabated stream of innumerable favors. Time, 
which wears out everything, has increased and strength- 
ened your affection for me. When I seemed deserted by 
almost the whole world, and assailed by almost e\ery 
tongue and pen and press, you have fearlessly and man- 
fully stood by me, with unsurpassed zeal and undimin- 
ished friendship. When I felt as if I should sink beneath 
the stonn of abuse and destruction, which was violently 
racrinof around me, I have found mvself upheld and sus- 
tained by your encouraging voices and your approving 
smiles. I have doubtless committed many faults and in- 
discretions, over which you have thrown the broad man- 
tle of your charity." 



78 HENRY CLAY. 

DESCRIPTION OF CLAY. 

Reverend Robt. J. Breckenridge, in an oration on lay- 
ing the corner-stone of the Clay monument, at Lexing- 
ton, gives this estimate of Clay and his power, 

"It is in the midst of such progress, through such a 
development, to such a result, that this man, confessedly 
so great as an orator, a lawyer, a politician, a parliamen- 
tary leader, must vindicate to himself the still higher 
title of a great statesman. Two things may be confi- 
dently asserted as the basis of his claim to a title so 
august. The first is that of all the statesmen of his age, 
he most prominently carved a policy for his country; a 
policy to adoj)t which, or to reject which, made the sys- 
tem of other statesmen. . . . From 1811 to 1852. ... it 
cannot be denied that the opinion of Henry Clay was an 
important element in the fate of ever}- important question 
of national policy. The other fact is still more honor- 
able to his name, still more conclusive of his true great- 
ness. To whatever cause we may .see fit to attribute it, 
whether to his patriotism, to his justice, his sagacity, his 
love of fairness, his ambition, the fact is still unquestion- 
able, that of all the statesmen of the da\-, he was held by 
the common voice of mankind to be the most impartial. 
Impartial in striving to arrange all conflicting interests, 
impartial in seeking to adjust all threatening difiiculties, 
impartial in settling the boundaries of power and right, 
impartial iu his great spirit, in his wide intelligence, and 
in his dauntless conduct." ... 

"Honest in all things, truthful always; to deceive, to 
prevaricate, to act unfairly — the refuge of base, timid, 



HENRY CLAY. 79 

and feeble natures — no more entered into his thoughts 
in the high and difficult emergencies of life, than in the 
daily round of his commonest duties. His was a fair, 
high, brave, upright nature." . . . 

''There was nothing distorted about his nature — noth- 
ing out of sympathy with his times — nothing that could 
make him, or any one else, feel that he was not a man 
of the very living generation. He was not a common, 
— on the other hand he was a grand specimen, but yet 
he was a real and faithful specimen of a man, of an 
American, of a Kentuckian." 

CAMPAIGN SONGS. 

In 1844 the "National Clay Melodist'' was prepared. 
The songs are the purest doggerel, but a few selections 
will help us to an insight into the campaign of that )ear. 
The book was dedicated with the following quotation 
from one of Clay's letters. 

"I have wished the good opinion of the world, but I 
defy the most malignant of my enemies to show that I 
have attempted to gain it by any low or groveling acts, 
by an\- mean or unworthy sacrifice, by the violation of 
anv of the oblifrations of honor or bv a breach of anv of 

o - - 

the duties which I owed my country." 

DID YOU EVER HEAR OF THE FARMER. 

"Did ever you hear of the farmer 

Who lives up in llie West? 
Of all the men for President 

The wisest and the best, 
To put him in the capitol 

We've found a capital way. 



8o HENRY CLAY. 

Oh! we'll sing a Harry Clay song by night, 
And beat his foes by day." 

i "Come all, of every station, 

The rich as well as poor; 
For all the fanner had a place, 

Who ever sought his door: 
He ever had an open hand, 

Nor turned the poor away; 
OhI we'll sing a Harry Clay song by night, 

And beat his foes by day." 

VAN can't COME IT. 

"When pumpkins shall grow on the top of a steeple, 
And showers of pancakes shall fall with the rain; 

When Benton and Tyler can humbug the people, 
Van Buren may come back to power again." 



"When camels shall creep through the eye of a needle, 
And dunces confess themselves minus in brain; 

When rogues cannot cheat us nor parasites wheedle, 
Van Buren may come back to power again." 

come! up with THE B.\NNER. 

"Come! up with the banner 

Of good Harry Clay, 
Who in peace and in war, 

Was his country's firm stay; 
Spread it wide to the breeze; 

We'er freemen who rear it; 
And whate'er its fate be, 

We'll willingly share it. 
We are some of the lads who in '40 were true 

To the gallant Old Hero of Tippecanoe." 

"¥i)r cute \'an and Calhoun, 

We care little or nought; 
They spread their own snares. 

And in these they are caught, 



IIKNKV CLAY. 8i 

They'n.' for tariff no tariff, 

This, that lliin.ii, and t'other, 
And so inucli, and nottiing, 

That thrv honrsl nun l)othcr, 
A\'c arc some of llic iad>, Sec." 

clay's karlv \tkw.s on vSLAVERY. 

I cannot get any absolute pvooi that the following let- 
ter in the Koitucky Gazette of April 25, i 798, is Clay's, 
as it is signed "Scaevola," yet ! am morally certain of it. 

It is an appeal to the voters of Kentucky to send dele- 
srates to the Constitutional Convention favorable to the 
views set forth in it. After discussing at some length 
the need of a general revision of the Constitution he 
says: — 

"It is not however true that the people of Kentucky 
are contented and happy under the present government. 
The vote of so large a number in favor of a convention 
at the last election, and the present stir in the countr}-, 
prove the contrary. Can any humane man be happy 
and contented when he sees nearly thirty thousand of 
his fellow beings around him, deprived of all the rights 
which make life desirable, transferred like cattle from 
the possession of one to another; when he sees the trem- 
bling slave under the hammer, surrounded by a number 
of eager purchasers, and feeling all the emotions which 
arise when one is uncertain into whose tyrannical hands 
he must next fall; when he beholds the anguish and 
hears the piercing cries of husbands separated from wives 
and children from parents; when in a word, all the ten- 
der and endearing ties of nature are broken assunder and 



82 HEXRV CLAY. 

disregarded; and when he reflects that no gradual mode 
of emancipation is adopted either for those slaves or for 
their posterity, doubling their numbers every twenty-five 
years. To suppose the people of Kentucky, enthusiasts 
as they are in the cause of liberty, could be contented 
and happy under circumstances like these, would be in- 
sulting their good sense 

"In addition to other misrepresentations to which the 
enemies to a convention, dispairing of success by a fair 
mode of reasoning, have had recourse, they have ad- 
dressed themselves insidiously to the fears of the slave- 
holders, and held out as the object of the friends to the 
constitution are immediate and unqualified liberation of 
the slaves. However just such a measure might be, it 
certainly has never been the intention of any one to at- 
tempt it; and the only motive in ascribing it to them 
has been to awaken the prejudices, and to mislead the 
judgment of the public. But it is the wish of some of 
them that a gradual emancipation should be adopted. 
All America acknowledges the existence of slavery to be 
an evil, which while it deprives the slave of the best 
gift of heaven, in the end injures the master too, bv lav- 
ing waste his land, enabliug him to live indolently, and 
thus contracting all the vices generated by a state of idle- 
ness. If it be this enormous evil, the sooner we attempt 
its destruction the better. It is a subject that has been 
so generally canvassed by the public, that it is unneces- 
sary to repeat all the reasons which urge to a conven- 
tional interference. It is sufficient that we are satisfied 
of this much, that the article prohibiting the legislature 



HKXRV CLAY. 83 

from making any provision for it [emancipation] shonld 
be expunged, and another introduced either applying the 
remedy itself, or authorizing the legislature at any sub- 
sequent period to do it. 

There can be no danger in vesting this power in 
them, and there will be a number of them who will 
themselves hold slaves. The legislature of Mrginia 
possesses this power without abusing it.'' 

In the last part of the article ''Scaevola" argued that a 
state senate was a useless body, hence he proposed that 
the new convention should provide for only one house 
in the legislature. 

clay's duels. 

In accordance with the custom of the times Clay 
fought in two duels, and was ready for at least two more 
which were finally amicabh' arranged by mutual friends 
of the parties. 

The first duel was fought with Humphrey [Marshall 
early in 1809. The following extracts from The Re- 
porter^ a Lexington, Kentuck\-, newspaper give us a vi\- 
id picture of the condition of the times. 

General Riffe was a uR-mbL-r of the Kentucky House 
of Representatives, when Marshall gave the insult. 
Clay resented it on the spot, and attempted to attack 
IMarshall, "but Riffe who sat between them, a tall muscu- 
lar man, seized each with one hand, and held them 
appart, saying earnestly, 'Come poys, no fighting here, I 
wdiips you poth.' " Jan. 4, 1809 Clay sent the following 
letter: 



84 HENRY CLAY. 

"H. Marshall, Esq., Present, 

Sir: After the occurrences in the house of representatives on 
this day, the receipt of this note will excite with you no surprise. I 
hoi)e on my part I shall not l)e disappointed in the execution of the 
pledge you gave on that occasion, and in your disclaimer of the char- 
acter attributed to you. To enable you to fulfill these reasonable and 
just expectations, my friend Major Campbell is authorized by me to 
adjust the ceremonies proper totlic observed. 

I am, sir, yours \-c., 

Henry Clay." 
On the same da>- the following reply was sent. 
"H. Clay, Esq., P>ankfort, 

Sir: Your note of this date was handed me by Major Campbell. 
The object is understood; and without designing to notice the insinu- 
ation it contains as to character, the necessary arrangements are, on 
my part, submitted to my friend, Col. Moore, 

Yours &c., 

H. Marshall.'' 

These rules were agreed upon to be observed b}- Clay 
and Marshall on the duellinsf srround: — 

1. "Each gentleman will take his station at ten paces distant 
from the other, and will stand as may suit his choice, with his arms 
hanging down, and after the words, At tentioni Fire! being given 
both may fire at their leisure. 

2. "A snap or flash shall be equivalent to a hre. 

3. "If one should fire before the other, he who fires tirst, sliall 
stand in the jtosition in which he was when lie firetl, except that he 
may let his arms fall down by his side. 

4. "A violation of the above rules by cither of the parties (acci- 
dents excepted) shall subject the offender to instant death. 

JOHN 15. Campbell. 
JAMLs F. Moore." 

Three shots were fired. Marshall was slightly wounded 

on the first, and Clay somewhat severely on the third 

fire. The seconds in their ''officiar' rejT-ort note that 

Clav "insisted on another fire \cr\- ardcnth." 



HENRY CLAY. 85 

As the duel arose over a debate concernino; the prin- 
ciple of protection, it has been said that Clay "foug;ht 
and bled'' for the idea which dominated so much of his 
thinkincr. 

In 1S12 Randolph accused Clay of unfairness in his 
actions as vSpeaker, and became very violent in his lan- 
guage. In reph- to a letter, Langdon Chens wrote to 
Clay as follows: 

"You ask nu- 'what notice you ou,ij;lit to take of Randolph's reply?' 
Certainly none, none whatever. ... 1 think as the question stands, 
you have entirely the advantage of the arguincnt; and 1 think you 
would ei,n-et,Mously err, as the Speaker of the House of Representatives 
(it would be entirely different were it a (piestion In-tween Mr. Clay 
and Mr. Randoli)hUo put it on any other footinjj; than that of argu- 
ment. . . . 

"I have not a doubt of your willingness to put the (juestion per- 
sonally on any footing whatever, that might be deemed proper. But 
any such notice of it on your part would be most inexcusably wrong." 

One is happy to add that Clay followed the advice 
given, and it was not initil 1825 that the Clay-Randolph 
duel took place. At that time Randolph said of the po- 
litical alliance of Adams and Clay that it was the "Union 
of the Puritan and the Blackleg, &c.'' For this Clay 
issued a challenge for which he ever after expressed con- 
trition. 

There are varying accounts of this duel. Gen. James 
Hamilton, Randolph's second, .states that Randolph fired 
in the air, and not at Clay. He says:— "On the word 
beino- driven, Mr. Clav fired without effect, Mr. Randolph 
discharging his pistol in the air. The moment Mr. Clay 
saw that Mr. Randolph had thrown away his fire, with a 
gush of sen.sibility, he instantly approached Randolph 



86 



HENRY CLAY. 



iiil! 



and said, with an emotion I can never forget — 'I trnst in 
God, my dear Sir, you are untouched; after what has oc- 
curred I would not have harmed you for a thousand 
worlds.'" ]\Ir. Randolph had beforehand communicated 
to his second his intention "not to return j\Ir. Clay's fire; 
nothing shall induce me to harm a hair of his head. I 
will not make his wife a wadow, nor his children or- 
phans. Their tears 
w^ould be shed over 
•\, his grave; but when 



the sod of \'irginia 
rests on m^' bosom, 
there is not, in this 
wide world, one in- 
dividual to pay this 
tribute upon mine." 
Ill 1853, Gen. Jes- 
up, who had been 
Clav's second, in a 
letter to Cla>'s son, James, gives a somewhat different 
version. He states that Randolph shot at Clay the first 
round, and threw away his second shot. Randolph's 
pistol went off accidently before the command had been 
given. For that reason Gen. Jesup makes Randolph 
speak and act as follows: " 'Mr. Clay, I came upon the 
ground determined not to fire at you, but the unfortunate 
discharge of my pistol, . . . for a moment changed my 
mind.' They sprang forward as if by a common im- 
pulse, and grasped each other by the hand, each express- 
ing the pleasure he felt that the other was unhurt." 




..■.■■:-;-;n^->>'?Sw,'.'\. ; . : '^-■.• 
John Randolph. 



HENRY CLAY. 87 

Clay in his private letters condemned himself, his acts, 
and the cnstom. In liis later years he acted in accord- 
ance with his professions. 

CLAY AND THE PEOPLE. 

Henrv Clay was a great admirer of crowds. Webster, 
Benton or Calhonn would cross the street to avoid one, 
but Clay would cross the street to meet one or mingle 
with one. He seemed to be personally acquainted with 
everv one, and he seemed to act as if everv one knew 
him. Congressman Wentworth says "Seldom did any 
bodv of men come out in the evening with a musical 
band that Mr. Clay was not serenaded, and he was ready 
for a short speech to send the men home with a hurrah. 
I never knew men with a band of music to call on any 
one of the others." 

The people of the whole country seemed to take de- 
light in sending Mr. Clay articles of all kinds for food 
and drink. The proprietor of the National Hotel where 
he roomed used to exhibit to strangers wdiat he called 
Mr. Clan's store-room. In it was game of all kinds, 
fruits and wines. From these stores he would often sup- 
ply not only the table of his own guests, but also the ta- 
ble of the guests of the hotel. On one occasion it is re- 
corded by Mr. Wentworth that wine from Cincinnati w^as 
passed around, and as it went from guest to guest Mr. 
Clay discoursed of the need of protection so that the 
home industry might be built up. "Persons who had 
never heard Mr. Clay before, became so infatuated with 
the earnestness and eloquence of his language, that they 



88 HEXRV CLAY. 

moved their chairs to him, and the crowd became so 
dense around him, that he suggested an adjournment to 
the ladies parlor, where he held a levee for about an hour, 
and no free-trader cared to mar the harmony of the occa- 
sion." It was Clay's custom to spend an hour or more af- 
ter dinner in the ladies' parlor in meeting his friends, and 
in making more friends. 

Clay as every one knows, was at his best as a compro- 
miser. Most great orators have made their fame in advo- 
cating radical causes. Clay on the other hand was the 
orator of conser\'atism. It was in pleading for the Union, 
in urging compromise that many if not most, of his great 
speeches were uttered. The following incident is told of 
him in connection with the great conflict of 1849-50. 
The narrator says: "After one of his days of severe con- 
flict, he took his seat at the table without saying a word 
to one of us. Senator Berrien said: ']\Ir. Clay why don't 
you speak. Are you angry at everybody?' 'That is 
just it,' says jMr. Clay; 'I cannot say that I am angry at 
any one in particular. I think I am angry at every one. 
Here is our country on the very verge of civil war, which 
every one pretends to be anxious to avoid, yet everyone 
wants his own way, irrespective of the interests and 
wishes of others.' Then turning to us he said 'Come 
gentlemen, go to my parlor after dinner, and let me lock 
you in, and I remaining outside, will agree to present 
any plan of conciliation you may agree upon, to the Sen- 
ate, and advocate it."" About this time a committee of 
New England manufacturers approached him with ref- 
erence to the tariff. Before all he broke out: "Don't talk 



HEXRV CLAY. 8g 

to me about the tariff when it is doubtful whetlicr we 
have a couutrv. Go aud see vour Massachusetts dele- 
gatiou and urge them to lay aside their sectional jealous- 
ies, to cease exasperating the South, and to cultivate a 
spirit of peace. Save your country and then talk about 
your tariff." 

QUOTATIONS. 

These anecdotes of Clay are taken from Winthop's 
"Recollections of Clay.'' "With a rich and ready com- 
mand of language of his own, he was an infrequent 
quoter of other men's thoughts or words, and certainly 
no accumulator of elegant extracts for the adornment of 
his speeches. Indeed he was proverbial for blundering 
over even the most familiar quotations from Shakespeare. 
The late George Evans, one of the ablest Senators ever 
sent to Washington by a state which may boast of a 
Peleg Sprague and a William Pitt Fessenden [Maine] . . 
used to tell more than one amusing story of ]\Ir. Clay's 
efforts in this line. 'What is it,' said Clay to him one 
day, 'that Shakespeare says about a rose smelling as 
sweet (Sic. Write me down those lines; and be sure you 
get them exactly right, and let them be in a large legi- 
ble hand.' And so ^Ir. Evans having verified his mem- 
ory, at Clay's request, by a resort to the Congressional 
Library, and having laid the lines in plain, bold letters 
on Mr. Clay's desk, — 

'What's in a name? That which we call a rose, 

By any other name would smell as sweet' 

awaited the result. As the great statesman approached 

that part of his speech in which he was to apply them, 



go HENRY CLAY. 

there was an evident embarrassment. He fnmbled o\-er 
his notes for a while, then grasped the little copy with a 
nervons effort, and at last ejaculated in despair, 'A rose 
will smell the same, call it what von will.' " 

"On another occasion he had fortified himself by re- 
calling the exclamation of Hamlet, 'Let the galled jade 
wince,' — but it was only after saving 'unhuno-' and 'un- 
strung' that on the third attempt, and by the prompting 
of a friend, he made the Senate Chamber ring with the 
true words, 'our withers are unwrung. ' " 

CI, AY ON THE CHARGE OF CORRUPTION. 

Clay wrote the following letter to a member of the 

Virginia legislature in regard to the charge of corruption 

in 1825. 

Washington, February 4, 1825. 
"M,y Dear Sir; I have received, ami n-atl, witli all the attention 
due to our ancient and unbroken friendshi]), your letter of the 2nd in- 
stant. You state, that the conviction has been forced upon the Rich- 
mond public, by the papers which are daily received from this city, 
that I have gone over to the party of Mr, Adams, with a view to con- 
stitute a part of his cabinet. Do you believe it? Then you ought not 
to respect me. Do you wish me to deny it? Then you cannot respect 
me. What do you desire? That I shall vote for Mr. Crawford? / 
can not; ioT Genera] Jackson — I li'ill not. I shall pursue the course, 
which mv conscience dictates, regardless of all im]nitations, and all 
conse(]uences. I love tlie state which gave me birth, nu)re than she 
loves me. Persoiialh-, 1 woulil make any sacritic"e to e\ince this at- 
tachment. But 1 have jniblic duties to perform, which comprehend a 
consideration of her peculiar interests and wishes, and those of the 
rest oi the confederacy. Those I sJiall perform. In doing so, I may 
incur, unfortunately, her displeasure. Be it so. I cannot help it. The 
c|uiet of my conscience is of more importance tome, than the good 
opinion of even \'irginia, liighly as I do, and ever must, resjject it. 

Your faithful friend, H. Clay." 



HENRV CLAY. gt 

THE STORY OF HENRY CLAY. 

FOR A SCHOOL OR CLUB PROGRAM MK. 

Kacli numbered paragraph is to be given to a pupil or 
member to read, or to recite, in a clear, distinct tone. 

If the school or club is small, each person may take 
three or four paragraphs, but should not be required to 
recite them in succession. 

1. The "Great American Commoner," Henry Clay, was born in 
Hanover Coimty, ^'irginia, on the I2th of April, 1777. 

2. He came into the world during one of the most memorable 
periods in its history, — the time when his native land was struggling 
to achieve her liberties and win a place among the nations of the 
earth. 

3. His father Rev. Charles Clay was a highly esteemed Jkiptist 
minister who officiated with great acceptance in that region of the 
country to which the name "Slashes" was given on account of the low 
and marshy nature of the soil. 

4. From this circumstance Henrv Clay was frequently called "The 
MilMwy of the Slashes." 

5. Henry's father had a long struggle with ])overty until 1781 when 
he died, leaving a small and encumbered jiroperty to his widow and 
seven children; of these Henry was the fifth, and although a bright, 
cheerful and intelligent lad he gave no special indication of superior 
ability. 

6. The only school he ever attended was one of the old "field 
schools" of the country. This was taught by an Englishman, who 
was a good natured man, but not always a strict observer of temper- 
ance. 

7. Henry learned to read and write, and to cipher as far as Prac- 
tice. 

8. This was the only school he ever attended. He often regretted 
in after life, when sometimes taunted with his imperfect education, tliat 
he could not have enjoyed greater privileges. 

9. He assisted his widowed mother in cultivating the farm until 
he was fourteen years old. He was then ])rocured a situation in a 
drug store in Richmond, where he served as errand boy and clerk of 
all work for a year. 

10. His mother married Mr. Henry Watkins in 1792 and removed 
to Kentucky. Henry obtained through Mr. \\'atkin's influence a 



92 HENRY CLAY. 

place as copyinj^ clerk in the office of Mr. Peter Tinsley, clerk of the 
High Court of Chancery. 

11. At this time he was but fifteen years of age "very tall, very 
slender, very awkward" and not remarkably handsome. 

12. He was dressed in a very peculiar manner with his shirt col- 
lar, stiffly starched, and his coat tails standing out boldlv behind him. 

13. The young City clerks were tempted at first to make sport of 
this gawky country boy but they quickly found that it would not be to 
their advantage to do so. 

14. He applied himself faithfully to his duties and devoted all his 
leisure time to reading and study. 

15. Chancellor \Vythe one of the most eminent jurists of America 
chose young Clay for a copyist on account of the neatness of his hand- 
writing. 

16. ¥or four years Henry regularly copied the Chancellor's de- 
cisions which were among the clearest and best ever given from the 
judicial bench. Between the Chancellor and the young man an affect- 
ionate relation soon existed. 

17. A debating society which had been established in Richmond 
gave Clay the opportunity to display his oratorical powers. 

18. He assiduously cultivated the wonderfully melodious voice 
with which he had been gifted and soon became the best speaker the 
Society contained. 

iq. He said in after years, "I made it a habit at this period of my 
life to read daily in some work of history or science and then to retire 
to some solitary place and declaim the substance of what I had read. 

20. "It is to this early practice of the art of all arts that I am in- 
debted for the primary and leading impulses that stimulated my pro- 
gress and have shaped and molded my entire destiny." 

21. In November 1797 before he had completed his twenty-first 
year he was licensed by the Court of Appeals to practice law. 

22. He immediately went to Lexington, at that time the capital of 
the new state of Kentucky, although but a small village of about fifty 
houses. 

23. His success was rapid and very great. With it his personal 
popularity continually increased. His thrilling cloijuence frecpiently 
won for him enthusiastic ovations. 

24. In April 1799 he married Miss Lucrctia Hart, the daughter of 
Colonel Thomas Hart, one of the most highly respected citizens of 
Kentucky. He lived happily with her for fifty-three years. 

25. Mrs. Clay was a skilful manager of her husband's household, 
and by her domestic ability greatly assisted him in procuring a com- 
petency for his family. She survived him several years. 

26. In I7()8 Mr. Clay made earnest efforts for the gradual abolition 
of slavery in Kentucky, but was not successful. 



HENRY CLAY. 93 

27. He afterwards declared when he had reached the zenith of 
his fame and was opposintj tlic nuilificaticMi schemes of John C. Cal- 
houn, that ainoni; the jmnuK'st nunioric-s of his Hfe was the effort he 
had made at the very outset of liis career, to free Kentucky from the 
curse of slavery. 

28. In 1803 he was elected to the Legislature of Kentucky. While 
servinc; as a member he defended Aaron Burr, who was char^-ed with 
treason. Hurr made Mr. Clav belic\e that he was innocent of the 
crime! But when the real facts were suhseciuentlv made known to 
Mr. Clay, he would not speak to Burr when he afterwards met him. 

29. In 1806 Mr. Clay was elected to the Senate of the L'nited States 
to fill t lie unexpired term of one of the Kentucky senators. During 
this term he began his career as an advocate of the protection of 
American interests by the general Government. 

30. His term having exj)ired in 1807, he returned home and being 
elected to the lower House of the Kentucky Legislature was chosen 
its Speaker. 

31. While thus serving he had a political dispute with Mr. Hum- 
phrey Marshall. Mr. Clay was a supporter of President Jefferson's 
policy and Mr. Marshall was an ardent Federalist. 

32. According to the foolish custom of the time a duel was fought 
by the two men in which both were wounded. • 

33. Mr. Clay was again elected to the Senate of the L'nited States 
in 1809 to till an unexpired term of two years. 

34. I'pon his retirement from the Senate he was elected to the 
House of Representatives in Congress from the Lexington District, in 
181 1, and upon the organization of the House was chosen Speaker. 

35. Mainly through the eloquence and energy of Mr. Clay the war 
of 1812 was declared. President Madison proposed to make Mr. Clay 
the Commander-in-Chief of the army, when the first year of the war 
seemed to end in disaster. 

36. The purpose of the President was changed, when Mr. Gallatin 
asked him the important question. "If Mr. Clay goes to the army 
what shall we do without him in the House of Representatives?" 

37. In 1813 he was re-elected Speaker. But on Jan. ig, 1814 he 
resigned the position to serve as one of the Commissioners to meet at 
Ghent in Belguim, with those appointed by Great Britain. 

38. Mr. Clay rendered signal service to his country by steadily 
refusing to concede to I-'ngland the ])oint which she urgently de- 
manded, to have the right of the free navigation of the Mississippi 
river. 

39. From Ghent he went to Paris, and thence to London with .\dams 
and Gallatin to negotiate a treaty of Commerce with Great 15ritain. 

40. After his return to the United States he was tendered by 
President Madison the Mission to Russia and a place in his Cabinet, 
but each offer was declined. 



94 HENRY CLAY. 

41. In 18 1 5 he was again elected to the National House of Repre- 
sentatives and chosen speaker. 

42. He was re-elected in 1817 and, as^ain in i8ig and was chosen 
speaker on both occasions: while thus serviuLj he was an anknt advo- 
cate of the recognition of the independence of the Spanish Reimblics 
of South America. 

43. He took a most prominent part in 1820 and 182 1 in the famous 
controversy between the North and the South on the slavery question, 
which arose concerning the admission of Missouri as a slave state. 

44. He brought about by almost superhuman efforts what is known 
as "The Missouri Compromise," and for these efforts he received gen- 
eral praise as "The great pacificator." 

45. After the adjournment of Congress Mr. Clay retired to pri- 
vate life, intending to devote himself to his legal practice. 

46. But he was again returned in 1823 and was chosen Speaker by 
an overwhelming majority. 

47. He joined with Webster and others to pmcure tlic recognition 
of the indejjendence of Greece, and delivered a thrilling speech in 
behalf of that ill-fated country. 

48. In 1824 he welcomed Lafayette as Speaker tn Washington 
making an a^ddress of remarkable beauty and power. 

49. In 1824 Mr. Clay was a candidate for the Presidency of the 
United States. His opponents were Andrew Jackson, John Quincy 
Adams and William H. Crawford. 

50. As none had received a majority of the electoral votes, the 
election devolved upon the House of Representatives. 

51. Mr. Clav stood fourth in the number of electoral votes re- 
ceived and was therefore excluded from the choice. 

52. Had he received in addition to the thirty-seven votes given 
him, eight more which he had a right to expect from New York, he 
would have been the third candidate and would have gone before the 
House. 

53. In such an event there would not have been the least doubt 
of the result, for he would have been elected by a large majority to 
the Presidential chair. On the election of Mr. Adams, Mr. Clay became 
Secretary of State. The friends of General Jackson denounced him 
for supporting Mr. Adams in the election by the House of President, 
and for taking office under him. 

54. lolm Randolpli called Mr. Clay's espousal of Mr. Adams, as 
"the coalition of Puritan with black leg." As he would not recall the 
odious and unjust comparison, Mr. Clay challenged him to a duel. 

55. The meeting took place on the 8th of April 1826. Two shots 
were exchanged, but to tlie great joy of all concerned neither was in- 
jured. Some years afterwards the two men were reconciled. 

56. As Secretary of State Mr. Clay added greatly to his reputation 



HENRY CLAY. 95 

as a statesman, winning the admiration of all who loved the prosperity 
of the American people. 

57. When General Jackson became President he showed decided 
hostility to Mr. Clay who had returned to private life. The appoint- 
ments and removals which he made were all sceminplv aimed at 
Mr. Clay. 

58. This compelled the retired statesman to take up office once 
more, and Mr. Clay was elected to the Senate of the United States by 
a handsome majority. 

Sc,. Mr. Clay, while Senator, in order to carry measures through 
which he believed to be necessary for the peace of the country had to 
break with his old political friends. 

60. Me was told that in doing so he would endanger his chances 
for the Presidency. He made the immortal reply. "I would rather 
be right than be President." 

61. In 1832 he was nominated by the Whigs for President but was 
overwhelmingly defeated. 

62. In the Autumn of 1836 Mr. Clay was elected President of the 
Colonization Society. 

63. On the 31st of March 1842 he resigned his seat in the Senate, 
and in 1844 was again the Whig candidate for the Presidency but was 
defeated. 

64. In 184Q Mr. Clay addressed a long letter to the people of Ken- 
tucky urging them to provide for the gradual abolition of slavery in 
that state. The proposition however was rejected. 

65. In the same year, 1849, he was elected to the Senate of the 
United States for the full term of six years. 

66. During this session of Congress he addressed the Senate sev- 
enty times. He was often so sick and feeble that even with assistance 
he could scarcely reach his seat. 

67. His last efforts for the Compromise Measures which were so 
near to his heart were crowned with success. He considered their 
passage the culminating glory of his life. 

68. With the love and confidence of the whole country he came 
to the close of his unique and eventful career. 

6q. He still continued to hold his seat in the Senate, although his 
rapidly failing health prevented active participation in its duties. 

70. On the 20th of fime 1852 at the ripe age of scventy-tive years 
he breathed his last breath at Washington, where he was honored with 
a public funeral. 

71. No one can fully describe the ex(]uisite grace of Mr. Clay's 
gestures the melodious tones of his matchless voice, "and the interior 
look of his eyes — as if he were rather spoken/;vw than sptakim^. ' 

72. His elocjuence was absolutely intangible to delineation. The 
most labored and thrilling description could not embrace it. 



96 HKXRV CLAY. 

73. During his long public life he enchanted millions and no one 
could tell how he did it. He was an orator by nature. 

74. "The clear conception, the high purpose, the firm resolve, the 
dauntless spirit, sjieaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, in- 
forming every feature, and urging the whole man onward, right on- 
ward to his object," this was the eloquence of Henry Clay. 

75. One who heard a magnificent address of his in the Senate of 
the United States thus describes him. 

76. "Every muscle of the orator's face was at work. His whole 
body seemed agitated, as if each part was instinct with a separate life; 
and his small white hand with its blue veins apparently distended al- 
most to bursting, moved gracefully, but with all the energy of rapid 
and vehement gesture. 

77. "The appearance of the speaker seemed that of a fine intellect, 
wrought up to its mightiest energies, and brightly shining through the 
thin and transparent veil of flesh that invested it." 

78. Towards the close of life he said: "If the days of my useful- 
ness, as I have too much reason to fear, be indeed passed, I desire not 
to linger an impotent spectator of the oft scanned field of life. 

79. "I have never looked upon old age, deprived of the faculty of 
enjoyment, of intellectual perceptions and energies, with any sym- 
pathy. For such 1 think the day of fate cannot come too soon." 

80. The approach of the destroyer had no terrors for him. No 
clouds overhung his future. He met his end with composure, and his 
pathway to the grave was lighted by the immortal hojjcs which sjiring 
from the Christian faith. 

81. "Mr. Clay's countenance, immediately after death, looked like 
an antique cast. His features seemed to be perfectly classical; and 
the repose of all the muscles gave the lifeless body a quiet majesty 
seldom reached l)y living human being." 

82. The mortal remains of this most versatile and eloquent of 
American statesman were laid awav to rest, not in \\'ashington, but 
at his last recjuest, in his own family vault, in his beloved Keutucky, 
by the side of his relations and friends. 



PROGRAMME FOR A HENRY CLAY ENTERTAINMENT. 

1. \'ocal Solo^"A Thousand Years My Own Columbia." 

2. Essay — Henry Clay as an American Protectionist. 

3. Paper Henry Clay as an Orator. 

4. Instrumental Music. 

5. Essay— The Missouri Compromise. 

6. Paper — Henry Clay as Candidate Several Times for the Presi- 
dency. 

7. \'ocal Music— "The Sword of Bunker Hill." 



HENRY CLAY. 97 

8. Anecdotes of Henry Clay. 

q. Essay or Address Henry Clay's Relations to Presidents 
Madison, Monroe and John Quincy Adams. 
10. Music— Instrumental. 



QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW. 

What two general principles help to tleter?/iine a man s charac- 
ter.^ Point out sonte illustration in your oi<.'}i history. How viuch do 
we know about Clay s early years ^ Why do we hai'e so little infor- 
7nation / Have we other great men whose early years are little known ? 
II 'hat was his fatlier s work? How did Clay aid his mother? How 
many brothers and sisters had Clay ? Do you know any boys no more 
favorably situated than he? 

Trace Clay's business changes. Did he have a good education? 
Did he ha^'e a fair chance to get a good an/ount of knowledge? IVho 
"were his teachers ? II hat distinguished men did he meet when a boy? 
How did he get much of his education ? What are the comparative 
ad^'antages of a college education and a practical one? How did 
.Mr. Wythe influence Clay' s life? With whcm did he study law? 
Could he have kno'wn much law when ad/nitted to the bar? 

Why did Clay go to Kentucky ? What kind of a people in Ken- 
fuck)' at the time? Why 'Ti'as ( lay so successful ? It 'hen did he begin 
to show power as a public speaker? II hen 7i'as Clay married? Gi^'e 
an account of Clay' s children, .\fake an analysis of the points in 
Clay' s early life. 

U as Clay a successful lawyer? What were his leading charac- 
teristics? Why did he prosecute so few cases ? In what kinds of law 
did lie succeed best ? Name some of the famous cases he engaged in. 
lias there any field in which Clay was greater than as a lawyer? 
Which is ?nore important to a nation, great statesmen, or great law- 
yers ? 

When did Clay begin his public career? What party did he be- 
long to in his early years ? Make out a list of the great measures he 
ad'i'ocated in the State Legislature and in Congress. On what subject 
did he change his position? What subjects early engaged his atten- 
tion ? IVhat did Clay mean by his " .Imerican system ?" How far did 
he wish to press manufacturing? Was he entirely consistent in his 
views on the tariff? II 'hat was Itis first speech that has come down to 
us? What were the arguments in his first really great speech ? 

What place did Clay hold in the f/ouse ? II 'hat honor did he re- 
ceive there that no other man has ever had ? II 'as Clay afraid to ex- 
press his opinions? 

Who was the leader in bringing on the -,i'ar of iSiJ ? What were 
the principle arguments used? Ifow did parties stand in regard to 
the war? What measures did Clay wish used in the war? flow did 
Clay feel toward merely military men aspiring to civil positions? 
Who were the peace commissioners in j8i.f? Were they harmonious? 



98 HENRY CLAY. 

What the thief point in dispute? What effect did the war have on 
Clay / On the A nierican people ? 

How did Clay feel toward the South Atnerican Republics? What 
did he 7vish do)ie? How did he succeed in his plans? What did Clay 
belici'c in regard to Greece? Could Clay he sarcastic iti speech? Give 
illustration. Would Clays arguments be applicable to any condi- 
tions now existing? 

How did Clay treat Monroe s administration? When did he 
first become a candidate for President? Was he a good political 
prophet? Why did Clay dislike fackson so inuch? What the reasons 
for Jackson's hatred of Clay ? What is meant by the cry of ''bargain 
and corruption?" Why could not Clay be a candidate before the 
House of Represetitatives in iS2j? Who was elected? Did the election 
give satisfaction ? When did the campaign of 1828 begin ? What was 
the principal issue? Ho7U do you explain the ill-will of Jackson and 
Clay? Did Clay, as Secretary of State, do what he wished? Why 
not? 

When did new parties begin to form? Into which did Clay go? 
What became their names by 1834? Why was Clay never elected 
President? Name the years in which he was a candidate. 

What was Clay' s political strength ? What his weakness ? What 
plans had he to restore prosperity after the crisis of i8jy ? What 
questions arose in regard to the public lands? How would Clay treat 
them? Was he right? What did he propose to do 7uith the income 
from the sale of public lands? Was he favorable to Nullification? 
Hotu did he and Calhoun theJi come to act together on the tariff? For 
what political end above all others did Clay stand? Give an account 
of fackson and Clay in their struogle over the National Bank. What 
plan had the Democrats to replace the National Bank as a means to 
manage the Government Revenues ? J I 'hat did Clay predict in regard 
toil? Has his prediction been fulfilled? 

How did Clay feel on the slavery question ? Why was he not con- 
sistent in argument on the question ? How did the question affect his 
Presidential prospects? What did he wish to have done with the 
Negroes? Name the great compromises he was author of in the mciifl. 
Draw conclusions in regard to his political influence on American 
history. 

What was the personal appearance of Clay? Was he ready? 
Give anecdote to illustrate. What qualities in his character do you 
like? What dislike? Was he brave? Give example. Could he have 
done anything which would have been braver? 

What can you say in regard to his style of oratory? What did 
the Federalists think of Clay? Did Clay believe in rules in Congress? 
Any exceptions? Was Clay sensitive to criticisfn? Proofs. How was 
Clay liked by his neighbors? Was Clay a good conversationalist? 
Gii'e illustration. Was he quick in repartee? Could he quote the 
words of other men readily in his speeches? Illustrate. On the whole 
do you like Clay or not? If not, why not? If yes, why so? 



HENRY CLAY. qg 

SUBJECTS FOR SPECIAL STUDY. 

/. C/ay's consistettcy in regard to the tariff. 
2. Reasofis for C/ay' s positions in regard to slavery. 
J. Did Clay do lurong in accrpting, under the cirennistances, t/u 
position of Secretary of State under .Idamsf 

4. Is there any good proof of corruption in his political life? 
J. //is personal morals. 

6. Were his compromises for the best interest of the Union? 

7. //is 7L'orA' as /^eace Co/nmissioner in 18/4. 

5. //is relations to Calhoun, 
g. His relations to Webster. 

10. 1 1 'hy he never becat/ie president? 



CHRONOLOGICAL EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

1777. Born in Hanover County, \irginia, April 12. 

1781. His father dies. 

1791. Clerk in store of Richard Denny. 

1792. Enters \'irpinia Hit,rh Court of Chancery as clerk. His mother 

marries again and moves to Kentucky. Becomes amanuen- 
sis to Chancellor Wythe at Richmond. 

1796. Begins the study of law in earnest. 

1797. Admitted to the bar in Richmond and leaves for Kentucky. 
1799. Married Miss Lucretia Hart. 

1803. Elected to the legislature of Kentucky. 

1806. Sent to the I'nited .States Senate for a' year to fill a vacancy. 

Not yet thirty. 

1807. Again elected'to tlie Kentucky legislature. Elected speaker. 

1809. His first duel, lioth Clay and liis opponent, Humi)hrey .Mar- 
shall, slightly wounded. Elected to the United States Senate 
to fill a two years' vacancy. 

181 1. First election to the House 'of Kcjircsentatiyes; the first day of 
his first term elected speaker. 

181 4. Resigns the speakersliip to go as Peace Commissioner to Eu- 

rope, with Gallatin, J. Q. Adams, Russell and Bayard. 

1815. Elected again to Congress, and chosen speaker f()r the third 

time by a large majority. He was re-elected speaker in 
1817, iSioand 1823. 

1820. A supporter of the Missouri Compromise. 

1821. The author of the compromise under which Missouri finally 

became a State in the Union. 

1822. Nominated for the Presidency by the legislatures of Kentucky, 

Louisiana, Missouri and Ohio. 

1824. Defeated for the Presidency. Famous tariff debate with Web- 

ster. 

1825. Secretary of State under j. (2- -Adams. The cry of "bargain 

and corruption" raised. 



lOo HENRY CLAY. 

1826. His second duel. Neither he nor John Randoljih wounded. 

Shook hands after the affair was over. 
182Q. Returns to Kentucky and to his farm. 

1831. Elected Senator ai^^ain. Deceniber 12, he was nominated as 

the National Repul)lican candidate for President. 

1832. Jackson defeats him for the Presidency. The Nullihcation 

controversy begins. He struggles for the National I'.ank 
against Jackson. 

1833. Proposes and carries through the famous compromise tariff of 

that year. 

1834. Gives a name to the new party^W'hig. Attempts to attach 

the name Tory to the Jackson party. Fails. 

'83'"'37- A member of the great "triumvirate" Webster, Clay and 
Calhoun. 

1830. Defeated for the Whig nomination ])y Harrison. \'ery sore 
for a time. 

i84i-'42. Opposes the Tyler administration. 

1842. Resigns the Senatorship; one of his greatest and most dramat- 
ic speeches, on leaving the Senate. 

1849. Returns to the Senate. 

1850. Author and most powerful supporter of the "Compromise of 

of 1850." 
1852. Died June 2(). 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

For those w ho flesire to read more extensively the folK)wing 
works are s]ieciall\- recommended. 

SOURCES. 

Mallory Daniel. "Henry Clay, Life and Speeches." New York, 1843. 
Colton, Calvin. "Works of Henry Clay." Comprising his Life, Corres- 

])ondence and Speeches in seven volumes. Introduction by Thos. 

B. Reed. Henry Clay Publishing Co. New \drk, 1897. 
Colton, Calvin. "Last Seven Years of Clay." 
Greelev & McElrath. "Speeches of Henrv Clav." 2 vols. New York, 

1883. 

I.IVKS. 

t olton, (aU in. "Henry CI. ly." New N'ork, 1844. 

Schurz, Carl. "Life of Henry Clay." 2 vols. Statesmen Si'ries. Hough- 
ton, Mifflin & Co. 15oston, 1887. 

Prentice, George D. "Biography of Henry Clay." 

Sargent, Epes. "The Life and Public Services of Henry Clay." New 
York, 1844. 

()bituarv Addresses in Houses of Congress. 

Parton, James. "Famous Americans." 1867. 



THE PATRIOT. 



\ 



' <|>'^r»5"^.-»)''^r»i"fe.-#DS^r»>-fe*)'^^r^)'i^' 



CHICAGO 



1 



PIANO COLLEGE 



I 



CHARLES E. 



Suite i,7, 

KIMBALL 



IS 



HALL, 



WAIT, Director. 

243 Wabash Ave., CHICAGO, 



I 






NOT EXCELLED 

BY ANY 

SCHOOL IN 

CHICAGO 

IN POINT OF 

ARTISTIC 

ATTAINMENT 



OUR SPECIALTY J Pi^"° ^^ »" i<» branches. 

from foundational tech' 
nic to finished concert performance. 

OUR AIM S ^° niake Musicians of our pupils. 
To this end we maintain elaborate 
courses of concerts and lectures, as well as classes in 
Harmony, Analysis, History of Music, Composition, 
Counterpoint and Ensemble. 



I 



Tuition, $10 to $40 per term of Ten Weeks. 

I Collegiate Department (graduating course), $100.00 per | 

year, including Piano and all Theoretical Branches. 



t 



I 



A Violin Department lias been added, wliicli has been placed under the 
din-ctioii of tlio distiiiKuishod violinist, Hr. W. W. LEFFINQWELL. 
A Specialty will be made of Ensemble Classes for Violinists and Pianists. 

Pupils can enter at any time. 
Send for New Illustrated Catalog. 



I 
I 

I 



i 



PALL TBRM opens September 5th. 

Recitals, etc., will be given. 

SEND FOR 



Special Class Lessons, Lectures, 



A CIRCULAR. 



WHtN WRITINO TO ADViRTIIElia KINDLY MfNTION THB PATRIOT 



J 



THE PATRIOT. 




GOOD TEETH ^^^ ♦^^ ^^^"i* ^^ ^^g^^ 

■"""■""■^^^"■~~~ eating. There must be 
sufficient mineral matter in the food or the 

teeth will decay. The early decay of teeth is 

usually the result of an over/indulgence in 

meat and sweet foods. Quaker Oats contains 

the required mineral matter. Children fed on 

Quaker Oats will develop strong, white teeth, 

A delicious breakfast and supper food for old 

and young. 

At all Grocer's* 
Sold only in 2^1b* sealed packages. 

Every package bears 
Quaker name and Quaker figure. 

ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTE. 



VHBN WNITINQ TO * DVC RTItS !»■ KtNDLV MiNTION THI PATRIOT •• 



THE PATRIOT 



Typewriter 
Bargains... 



All standard $100 Typewriters sold by 
I OS (under full ^ruarautee) at $2.j to f50, 
little used. Shipped, allowing examina- 
tion and trial. Send postal for handsome 
colored Fin-de-Siecle Descriptive Price 
List of the Standard Machines. All 
makes exchanged and rented on liberal 
terms. Desks, one-half cost. Colored 
Price List of the American Standard Pit' 

Small Shorthand Books arranged for self" 
instruction sent on application. 



ConeolidaUd CvpewriUr £xcbande. 



245 BROADWAY 



NEW YORK. 



TELEPHONE 5369 CORTLANDT. 



tTTIjOHN'S 



• *»v 



v l^^. .^^ 




g) poK <mmM 



Siifflig)^J!^iii! 



reakfast food 

rEEDS THE BODXAND THE BRAIN 

ii-iE American CereauCo.Cmicago 




TEA SET 



FREE 



^^ Mr KmltK^ MZt^ u Full size for family use, beauti- 
fully decoriitcii * most artistic dcBiprii. A rare ehancc. VoucaiiKet 
this handsuiiie china tea sot A one dozen silver plated tea siwons for 
.s«-liiii|.r our rills. We meau what we siiy & will pivethis l>eautiful tea 
set absolutely free if you com ply with the extraordinary offer wescnd 
to every person taking advantage of this advertisement. To quickly 
introduce ourVeeetable Pills, a sure cure for constipation. Indlftestion A torpid liver, if you a^jree to mil only nix 
boxes of Pills at 85 cts. a box write to-day and we send Pills bv mail, when sold send us the money & we send yi 

~ . •-- .... . . • -.fi 



ou 
his 



one dozen Silver plated tea spoons together with ouroffer of a .Vi p'ece china tea set same day nionev is received 

is a liberal inducement to everv lady in the land and all who ri'Celved the spoons and tea set forsellintr our Pills are 
deUgbted. AM£UICA> M£1>1C1>£ CUUl'ANY, I>ept. S 30 \V£bX ISth Bt., M£W YORK CITY. 



THE PATRIOT. 



f CHICAGO NATIONAL COLLEGE of MUSIC | 

*> IS to 2G Van Btiren Street Chioaso. j* I 

JP * 

y AthenKum Building. 4tli Floor. * 

, (« 



IP 

it 
» 
it 
it 
it 
it 
it 
it 
it 
it 
it 
it 
it 
it 
it 
it 
it 
it 



V 

it 
it 
it 
it 
it 
it 
it 
it 
if 




DR. H. S. PERKINS. President. 

Elementary, Academic, ^^■^'■y department of Musical, Dramatic, Me- 
..... y I chanical and Decorative Art. Certificates and 

Collegiate, Normal. Diplomas awarded. The best facilities offered- 

for a thorough and complete musical education. Terms Low One 
hundred partial scholarships issued during the year to pupils not able to 
pay the full tuition and come properly recommended. Artists furnished 
for concerts, receptions, etc. Forty first-class teachers. 

FREE Sight-singing and Harmony Classes to all who take lessons 
in any other department, at catalog rates. 

LesBons given eveninge if preferred. XT Q PCDl^TWC 

Voices tried without charge. C'AI.li. **' '^^ rEFrS.ll>«0, 

A Pictorial Catalog mailed on application. Director. 



(« 

(» 
* 
M 
M 
<X 

* 
(« 
•» 
M 
M 
A 
M 
A 

M 

M 

(X 

X 
(X 

M 
<X 
<X 
(X 
A 
(X 
(X 

<x 

(X 

(X 
•X 
(X 

<x 



y||lt9iSi)lllSiliSiikSl)iSiSiSi9illliSi9i]k»i>i]li»i9(«i9k)lli)l«(liS(SiSi1i9ik1lSiklili9ililili»i 



WHIH WHITINO TO tOVIKTItCR* KINOLY MENTION TMi P«TIII0T 



39 « 






<>. 






..^^.. X/ ,|^', -.^^,^ 




■t . c 













•^ 

^^-J- 

^J.*-^^ 



^•' J'^% 









'*>. 



0" r-lTrH- 


















• o. 



^ '':f^^* ' JAN m^ ■ -^ r>^^' ^ 









''In a.- 



.^^-^-J 






